The Nine Tailed Sage
by saveme57
Summary: a what if story of what naruto's life would have been like had his parents survived the kyubi incident.
1. prologue

**The Nine Tailed Sage**

summary: this is a "what if" story about how Naruto's life would have been different had his parents lived through the Kyubi incident

ch1. the prologue

Jiraiya, the legendary Toad Sage and member of the Sanin was peeking on the womens' bath at a random village in the Land of Fire. Everything was fine until suddenly he went flying with a voice yelling "You dammed pervert! I'll teach you to peek on women!" Jiraiya could only moan in pain as he listened to the very famillar voice scold him after nearly kiling him. At the same time another voice he recognized was saying "Lady Tsunade, you've nearly killed Master Jiraiya. …Again." "Hmph. Serves him right for peeking". Later that day, once Jiraiya had recovered, Tsunade asked him an important question "Why are you here?" His answer was simple. "To bring you back to Konoha for the birth of my godson, what else?". Tsunade's answer was equally simple. "Never!" Jiraiya glared at her, saying, "It wasn't a request. You're coming because Minato's wife Kushina is about to give birth and with the Kyubi sealed inside her, there's no telling how much stress her body will be under giving birth and trying to keep the Kyubi sealed away. If something happens to her physically, there's no one better to help her than you." Tsunade sighed in defeat, knowing there was no way to say no since she didn't have anything against Jiraiya's student and his wife, so she simply said, "Let's go, but it'll take a least a week to get to Konoha." At this, Jiraiya laughed, saying "That's only if we walked, but we're taking the express route." At that, he quickly bit his thumb and ran through a set of handsigns before slamming his palm to the ground, shouting "Kuchiose no jutsu!" Once the large cloud of smoke vanished, there stood a gigantic toad with a blue vest and a pipe in its mouth. Jiraiya jumped onto the toad's head, followed by Tsunade and Shizune. "Come on, Bunta. We need to get to Konoha, fast" said Jiraiya. Gama Bunta's response was simply, "Fine, but you owe me. I'm not a taxi after all!".

They made it in under a day, but Tsunade was confused. She asked, "Why are we outside the village, Jiriaya?" Jiraiya looked at her like the answer should be obvious, but he answered anyway for fear of getting beaten up if he did or said anything that angered the Slug Princes. "It's to risky to have the birth in the village. The Kyubi could break out if something goes wrong." Tsunade just jumped off of Bunta and walked into the cave where Kushina was starting to go into labor and Minato was glancing at her worriedly as he focused on the Kyubi's seal. Tsunade just scoffed and made her way to Kushina. Glancing at Minato, she scolded him, saying "Focus solely on the seal. Kushina will be fine." Then, turning to Jiraiya, and shoved him outside, ordering him to stand guard with the ANBU while threatining him that she would kill him if he dared sneak off to due some "research" as he called his perverted peeking. After many hours of painful labor, Tsunade announced, "Congratulations. It's a healthy baby boy. What due you want to name him?" She answer from Minato and Kushina was simultaniously "Namikaze Naruto." Just then, their was loud noise and Naruto was snatched from the arms of Tsunade by a spiral-masked man. He then told Minato, "Follow me or your son dies at the ripe old age of 1 minute." Then he disappeared, instantly followed by Minato. Minato was quck to get Naruto back and placed him safely in his crib at the Namikaze Estate. Little did he know at this same time the masked man who had kidnapped baby Naruto was back at the cave where Kushina was. Tsunade was unable to stop him from extracting the Kyubi and using the power of his Sharingan to control the Kyubi so he could finally have his revenge on the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Minato donned his Hokage robe and set out to face and try to stop the Kyubi from destroying his village. Tsunade and Shizune were quick to set to work healing the damage to Kushina's chakra network from the Kyubi extraction. They both knew that if they weren't quick and thorough, Kushina would die from the damage.

Minato on the other hand was facing the toughest decision of his entire life, whether or not use his own son as the new vessel for the Kyubi since it was a being of pure chakra and therefore immortal. He teleported back to the cave to get Kushina and help set things up for the Sealing Ceremony, for he could see no other option but to seal the Kyubi in Naruto or loose the entire village to the Kyubi's rampage. Tsunade and Shizune had just finished healing Kushina when Minato reappeared. As soon as Kushina noticed him, she asked in a panicked voice, "Is Naruto okay?" Minato smiled gently at her saying "he's fine but the village wont be if I wait to much longer I'm going to have to seal the kyubi inside of him there is no other option. Saying Kushina was shocked would be an understatement even Tsunade and Shizune were at a lose for words but no one could think of any other way since the Kyubi couldn't be resealed inside Kushina since her chakra coils were already develop the Kyubi would break the seal killing her and dooming the village. So with a heavy heart Kushina said "alright but this means Naruto will have a terribly hard life" at this point Tsunadde interrupted saying "it wont be to hard with you two looking after him plus you'll have myself and that pervert Jiraiya to help hiim". Minato using the hirushin no jutsu brought Naruto and Kushina to were the Kyubi was and Kushina using chains made from her chakra held the Kyubi still while Minato performed a series of complicated hand signs summoning the shinigami and sealing the Kyubi inside of Naruto. Minato and Kushina, though tired, were very much alive thanks to Tsunade and the fact that Minato didn't seal the Kyubi in himself the shinigami didn't take his soul.

**Yes I know I didn't cover the fight between Minato and Madara or the fight between Minato and the kyubi but that is because I have no intention of retelling things the same as the manga so if you wanna see those fight or anything I didn't cover just read the manga since anyhting I didn't cover is the same as the manga. Also I know I changed the way the sealing jutsu works but it was the only way I could keep minato and kushina alive. To all those who favorited this story or added it to there alerts thank you but i would really like it if you left a review so i know what you thought of the story and how i can improve it.**


	2. the begining of genin days

Disclaimer: sadly I don't own naruto cause if I did there would be some major changes like a dead Madarra and Saskue and Naruto and Sakura would be together already but sadly I'll have to wait for kishimoto to do those things for me

**Genin days**

It had been seven years since the kyubi was sealed inside of the newborn Naruto and the village looked the same but many things had changed. The once powerful Uchiha had been plotting rebellion against the village so the council went behind the Yondaime Minato's back. They ordered ANBU captain Uchiha Itachi to kill the clan. But Itachi couldn't do it so instead he killed only those like his father who were leading those plotting rebellion. For this the elders fearing he would tell someone what they had planned and caused him to do so they banished him form Konoha. They said it was Itachi who in the search of power killed the leaders of the Uchiha clan. These words instilled in one Saskue Uchiha the desire for revenge and the strength to get his revenge.

Five years later at the namikaze estate a loud voice was heard "Naruto get out of bed this instant or you'll be late for the academy and unable to become a shinobi like your dad". Naruto quickly jumped out of bed dressed in his orange jumpsuit(same one he wore when the series started). Kushina looked at her son smiling as he hurriedly at his breakfast when "mom why are you shouting I was sleeping" said eight year old Aiko, kushina went over and ruffled Ayame's hair as she said "your big brother was being lazy and wouldn't get out of bed and is going to be late now" all the while glarrign at Naruto who gulped and ran out the door. Luckily for Naruto he had learned to jump up onto the roofs of buildings to get to the academy faster.

Once at the academy naruto slid into the classroom and looked at the clock before saying "whew just on time" right before getting hit in the back of the head by Iruka who was sighing saying "you'd think Naruto that with you being the son of the hokage who is known for his speed that you would be able to get to class early instead of at the last minute". Naruto just shrugged grinning his fox like grin "at least I maid it on time and I am fast I made it hear in five minutes Iruka sensei". "just shut up and take you're your seat dope" at this naruto glared at the person who said it Saskue Uchiha "shut up teme"naruto then took his seat.

Iruka then had everyone come up one by oe to perform a simple bunshin if they made an acceptable bunshin they passed if not they failed. When naruto's name was called he made a cross with his finger and shouted "kage bunshin no jutsu" producing two solid shadow clones causing the class to gape in shock, at the person they thought was the worst in the class. Iruka stared at naruto before asking "how did you learn a forbidden B rank techinique". Naruto just laughed while rubbing he back of his head saying "my dad said I had to much chakra to perform a normal bunshin so he showed me the shadow clone technique since it uses more chakra". Iruka smiled he had always known naruto wasn't the dead last people saw him as and that he would be great ninja then holding out a blue headband that had the leaf symbol engraved on it he said "congratulations naruto you pass". When Naruto took the headband he was literally shaking with excitement.

Iruka then turned and adressed the class saying everyone report back here tomorrow to be assigned to your respective teams. Naruto began to walk out of the classroom when he heard sakura say"saskue-kun would you like to go get something to eat with me to celebrate graduating", Saskue's response was "hmph why would I want to go anywhere with someone like you".

At this Naruto turned around angrily shouting at saskue "don't talk to sakura-chan like that teme!" sakura just stood quiet but visibly shaken saskue seemed to ignore naruto so naruto continued "if your gonna turn a girl down be nice and polite about it don't talk like their trash". At that saskue just scoffed and walked away while naruto turned to sakura "why do you let him talk to you like that your not weak sakura- chan your one of the smartest people i know and have amazing chakra control, if anyone else talked to you like that you'd get angry and hit them". Sakura just looked down so naruto continued "I don't get what people see in saskue he's an ass to everyone even those that try to befriend him". At this sakura looked at naruto and said its because he's an Uchiha there a great and powerful clan".

Naruto turned to sakura saying "so? I'm the son of the hokage and you don't see me acting like I'm better than anyone else my dad always tells me "if you want respect you've got to earn it not expect it just because of who you are or what someone else has done you earn it" that's something saskue needs to learn". As sakura thought about all that naruto had said she began to unconsciously follow him out the academy, when he turned and asked her if she had any plans when she said no he got a large smile on his face and asked "then you can come celebrate with me and my family we'll turn it into a double celebration since we bot passed" sakura smiled "alright naruto but we should ask your mom if it's ok"

With that they went to naruto's home. Once inside naruto shouted "MOM! I'm home". Sakura then hit naruto in the back of the head "baka you shouldn't yell inside especially to your mom". Kushina and Aiko came in to the kitchen where naruto and sakura were and as soon as Aiko saw sakura she ran up and hugged saying "sakura-san congratulations on becoming a ninja I knew you could do it unlike my brother who just got lucky". At this naruto let out and indignant :hey I became a ninja on skill not luck right sakura-chan?" sakura laughed and hugged Aiko back saying "aiko-chan you shouldn't tease naruto to much it's why he's so short it matches his confidence". At this not even kushina or Minato who had just got home could hold in their laughter.

Minato then asked sakura "would you like to come with us to celebrate Naruto and yourself becoming shinobi". Sakura looked up while letting go of Ayako to bow to Minato saying "hokage-sama I would like to go with you if its not to much trouble". At this naruto spoke up "neh neh sakura-chan you don't need to be so formal here". Minato laughed saying "naruto's right you're his friend which makes you my friend and friends don't need to be so formal with me just minato or minato-san is fine".

They then went to Naruto's favorite place in all of konha Ichiraku Ramen Bar. Minato and everyone was having a good time when he got an idea "naruto sakura how would you like to know whose team you'll be on tomorrow". Kushina then scowled at minato saying "they will find out tomorrow like everyone else will then they'll meet their jounin sensei". This caused everyone else to pout at kushina and naruto to whimper "but mom this is one of the perks of being related to the hokage and I'm shore your just as curious as to who my teammates and sensei will be". This caused minato and Ayako to laugh at naruto's attempt to get his mom to let minato tell him who's team he'd be on. Kushina sighed in defeat saying "fine but just the name of his sensei" she never could refuse naruto when he had his heart set on something since he had inherited her stubbornness.

This caused Ayako and Naruto to stand up and cheer. Minato then looked at naruto and old him "your sensei's name is hatake Kakashi he used to be an ANBU captain but that's all im telling you". Naruto then looked at his dad asking "whose sakura-chan's sensei gonna be?". Minato then laughed while looking towards sakura "im sorry but im not telling it would ruin the surprise lets just say you'll be plesantly surprised with both you teammates and your sensei."

After that they left Ichiraku's with naruto walking sakura home. When they got to sakura's house naruto turned to leave as he said bye to sakura. That night sakura thought about all that had happened that day especially what naruto had said about Saskue. She went through all the times she had been around him and the way he had acted and treated others. She then realized that "naruto was right and sakue is a selfish jerk". With that realized she decided to find a boy who would like her and be kind to her.

The next day Iruka announced the teams, when he got to team 7 he said "Naruto Namikaze, Saskue Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno" this caused outrage among saskue and naruto's fangirls since they wanted to be with either saskue or naruto. Sakura turned around to face the outraged voice of ino yamanaka who was yelling "why do you get to be on saskue-kun's team instead of me forehead". Sakura smiled at Ino and told her "you can have saskue I got over my crush on him yesterday so he all yours inopig I'll even help you if you want."

Once the final team was announced Iruka told all the students to get into their teams and wait for their jounin instructor to show up he then left the room. An hour later kakashi walked in and as soon s naruto saw him he stood up and shouted "I've seen you before you were taught by my dad when you were a genin he has a picture of his genin team on his desk". Kakashi ignored Naruto and introduced himself "I am Hatake Kakashi your new sensei now tell me about your selfs". He pointed at saskue to go first Saskue stood up and said "I am Saskue Uchiha I dislike weaklins and what I like isnt your business my desire is to avenge the death of my father and all those killed by a certain man". Kakashi then thought to himself "this one is going to be a handful if he lets his desire for revenge consum him". Then kakashi pointed to sakura who stood up and said "I'm Sakura Haruno I like my friend and dislike perverts and those who are mean to my friends what I desire is to be as capable a kunoichi as I can be" kakashi thought thought to himself "it looks like at least one of them isnt going to give me a headache". Kakashi turned to naruto "your turn now". Naruto stood up "im Naruto Namikaze I like ramen and sakura-chan I dislike saskue and waiting for ramen my desire is to become hokage and be better than my dad". Kakashi thoughts on Naruto were "he's grown in an interesting way but he thinks about ramen way to much". Kakashi then spoke " meet me at training ground 7 tomorrow morning and don't eat breakfast unless you want to throw it up".

When Naruto got home he saw his parents sitting in the living room with serious expressions on their face. Naruto walked in and asked "is something wrong you both seem upset". His dad stood up and walked over to naruto saying "Naruto now that you've become a ninja theres a secret we need to tell you". At this Naruto got excited until his mm spoke up "this isnt a good secret you will want to sit down since this will be very shocking fo ryou". Minato spoke saying "naruto what do you know about the Nine tailed fox Kyubi?". Naruto jst looked at his parents wondering what the kyubi had to do with anything so he spoke "not much other than you defeated it before I was born". Kushina looked at naruto sadly as she spoke "naruto the kyubi was defeated but not like you think it happened when you were born a masked man attacked the village using the kyubi which until then had been contained inside me I was what is known as a jinchuriki a person who holds the spirit of a biju inside of themselves. The night you were born the masked man removed the kyubi form me nearly killing me he then used kyubi to attack the village with it. So your father had no choice but to seal it in you since being the son of me and him we knew you could handle it and would need its power one day to protect those important to you. Knowing this didn't make it any easier to choose to seal kyubi in our own son though." Naruto sat there stunned when Minato spoke "that's why ever since you learned to access chakra we've been teaching you to be a shinobi so that you would be strong enough to use the kyubi's power without being controlled by it"

Naruto continued to sit silently while he thought about everything he had been tolled. Then he asked "who knows about me and the kyubi?". Kushina answered "Jiriaya, tsunade, sarutobi-sama who was the third hokage, and Kakashi once he became your jounin instructor, along with random villagers and ninja who saw or heard about your father sealing kyubi in you. Naruto I now is touh believe me I know since I was once the one kyubi was sealed in that's why I taught you how to make chakra chains so you could use them to restrain kyubi like I used to." Mimato then said "we're sorry you have to bear this burden but we know you can do it, also now that you know about kyubi you are free to tell whomever you want but be warned though we intended the village to see you as a hero some people will see you as a demon if they find out about the Kyubi."

Naruto then smiled and said "im the son of the 4th hokage and the former host of the most powerful biju this is nothing I cant handle, but could you teach me more powerful techniques like dad's rasengan or his flying thunder god technique." At this both of his parents laughed telling him they had someone in mind to help teach him. When he asked who they simply told himit was his godfather.

The next morning the naruto, saskue, and sakura arrived at the training field. The field was just a large plain of grass surrounded by trees. The unique thing about the field was the three wooden post at one end. After they had been waiting for a half hour kakashi finally showed up. Naruto glared at him and asked "are you always going to be late sensei?". Kakashi simply ignored naruto and held up two small bells and said "you have until noon to get these bells from me if you don't have them by noon you all fail and will be sent back to the academy for another year. He then jumped back and said "the test begins now!"

Naruto quickly ran to where sakura was hiding and said "we need a plan to get the bells kakashi is to strong for anyone of us". Sakura thought about this and realized naruto was right, at the same time Saskue attacked head on which gave sakura an idea. Sakura turned to naruto and asked "how many shadow clones can you make". At this naruto smirked and said proudly "as many as you need Sakura-chan" sakura smiled at this the she made 2 normal bunshins as naruto made 50 shadow clones and henged them into sakura when she told him to.

Kakashi was caught by surprise (since he had been distracted by saskue) when 52 sakuras started charging at him. As he fought through them disappearing many he noticed some were just normal bunshins that when he saw two narutos coming at him almost grad the bells. He quickly stabbed them only to realize that they weren't even shadow clones they were just regular clones. Right when he turned his attention fully back to the shadow clones he noticed they were all naruto. At this same moment sakura snuck up and took the bells off of kakashi.

Sakura and Naruto quickly found Saskue, but when they went to share the bells with him he scoffed saying he didn't want their charity. That's when they noticed it was noon. So all three of them confronted kakashi who smiled. He congratulated sakura and naruto for using teamwork to get the bells saying "well done by mixing naruto's shadow clones and sakura's normal clones together and then discussing them as sakura using a transformation jutsu you kept me off guard while sakura used her chakra control to lower her chakra to a point I couldn't sense it due to all the shadow clones and the real naruto she then stole the bells and share them with naruto which means you both pass the test.". this is when sakura had a question "if there are only two bells then how is the third person supposed to pass sensei". At this Kakashi turned to Saskue and said "this test wasn't truly about the bells it was about teamwork for none of you could ever beat me by yourselves, but you saskue fail because even when naruto and sakura tried to share the bells with you which is exactly what they were supposed to do you refused to cooperate so you fail however you have one more chance after lunch for the three of you to try again this time though if one fails then all three of you fail."

Kakashi then said "Saskue since you failed to get will not get lunch ad will be tied to the middle pole and if either naruto or sakura try and help you then all three of you fail". With that kakashi left so naruto turned to the tied up saskue and held his food out to him saying "eat if you don't eat you wont have any strength". But saskue just ignored the food as he used a kunai he had hidden up his sleeve to cut the ropes binding him and he began to walk away. Until a chain made entirely of chakra surrounded him and brought him to the ground. Naruto at this point was very grateful that he had learned his mom's technique. Saskue turned around surprised to see the chain coming out of naruto's hand. Naruto glared at saskue and said "like it or not your our teammate which means we look out for one another so none of us do something stupid so let us help you"

Sakura then shared what was left of her lunch with saskue saying "teammates help each other not out of pity but because we're comrades and depend on eachother so eat". Saskue just said "fine" and ate the remaining food and grudgingly saying thanks to Naruto and Sakura. Kakashi then appeared glaring at the three of them and said with a smile " I saw and heard everything you are absolutely right so all three of you pass we are now officially team 7 so rest up we begin missions tomorrow".

**thanks for reading now please review and tell me what you think. also i'm sorry if i misspelled a japanese word i tried my best to spell hem right also sorry about how i didn't capatalize a persons name all the time. REVIEW please**


	3. rasengan

Discalimer:sadly I still don't own naruto it still belongs to Kishimoto

**Rasengan**

Naruto was walking home from the bell test against Kakashi when he saw his little sister Aiko being picked on by a group of boys. Naruto jumped in front of the boys just as one of them was about to hit Aiko. Naruto growled at the boy saying "don't you dare hurt my little sister. The boy was about to say something until he saw Naruto's headband and ran off but not without calling naruto a demon first. Aiko looked up at her brother and was surprised to see he had red eyes with a slit down the middle, the whisker like marks on his face were more defined, and his nails looked like claws. The kyubi chakra had reacted to naruto anger at seeing his little sister picked on. Aiko asked naruto "why did those boys call you demon oni-chan" at this naruto sighed his features returning to normal he said "I'll tell you when we get home". At that he took aiko's hand and walked home.

Once home Naruto told Aiko the story of how he had the kyubi sealed inside him. Aiko stood up and tolled naruto "just because you have a demon inside you that doesn't make you a demon, even when your eyes change color your no demon you're my big brother". Kushina who had been listening in on naruto and aiko was shocked that naruto had already activated the kyubi chakra. So she decided to start teaching naruto how to control it and use it without being angry. But first she had to teach him to control his own chakra. So she walked in and said "naruto could you come with me there's something I want to teach you".

At the idea of learning something new naruto jumped up to follow his mom outside while aiko asked "mom I wanna learn too please". Kushina smiled at Aiko and said "alright then come along." Then she faced both Aiko and Naruto and said "by the end of today I expect u both to be able to walk up this tree using chakra." Aiko got the hang of I faster than naruto who by sunset had made it halway up the tree and Aiko was done.

Kushina smiled at naruto's dedication he had stayed up all night learning to walk up the tree only stopping to ask Aiko for advice. But by the time the sun stared to rise he had made it to the top of the tree. Kushia then walked out followed closely by aiko and said "good work naruto now we can start on lesson two learning to walk on water" as she said this she walked across the pond they had in their backyard. Naruto and aiko could only gape at their mom had she not shone them it was possible they would have called her crazy. Now they were just excited to get started. Aiko tried first only to fall in and climb out with her long red hair cliging to her back, naruto tried right after her without doing any better. Kushina stood their laughing as her two children kept trying only to fall in each time. When she finally stopped laughing she told them "constantly adjust your chakra with the depth of water" after that both kids tried again. By mid afternoon they had got it.

Aiko stood shivering due to her wet clothes while naruto stood next to her with his clothes dry laughing at her "see sis I told you that you would be cold you should have done like me and taking them off while training". Aiko glared at naruto and said "unlike you I'm a girl and cant go around half naked" she then pushed naruto into the pond when naruto got out both aiko and kushina were laughing at him. Seeing them standing next to each other naruto said "sometimes I forget just how much you two look alike". They turned and looked at eachother to see the similarites and naruto was right just as he looked almost identical to minato aiko was alost identical to kushina except he face was shaped just like naruto's. While they were distracted naruto pushed them both in for laughing at him.

When kushina got out she looked at naruto and said "for the next part of your training I'm having tsunade help you it was going to be your father but after that little stunt of yours I'm thinking tsunade would be better." Then she looked at aiko and said "as for you once we dry off I'll teach you how to make chakra chains with your chakra control you'll be better at it then naruto". Hearing this an excited aiko ran inside the house to dry off and kushina turned to naruto. She handed him a water a ballon and told him to rotate his chakra in side it till it burst and if he needed help to ask his dad or tsunade who had just shown up. When aiko came out and saw tsunade she hugged her saying "baa-chan why are you here?". Tsunade told hugged aiko and said "I have to baby sit the gaki over there" she then pointed to naruto which caused aiko to laugh and then leave with kushina to train elsewhere. Naruto whined saying "how come you hug her when she calls you baa-chan and ht me when I do it".

Tsunade ignored him and instead tied his left arm behind his back saying that he had to only use one hand like jiraiya and his dad did when they formed the rasengan one handed. Naruto was shocked as he realized he was learning the rasengan since kushina never actually told him what he was learning. By the end of the next day naruto was able to burst the balloon one handed tsunade just said "about time you should have been able to do that yesterday" but inside she was impressed by naruto.

She then gave him a rubber ball and told him "make this ball burst using just chakra". She took another rubber ball and popped it and said "burst it not pop it like I did this one" then she tied up his left arm so he wouldn't use it. It took him two days to burst the ball then looking at tsunade he said "if not for my missions I would have done it in one" which was a total lie. Tsunade knew this since naruto had been sending shadow clones on the missions instead. This was allowed since they were only D-ranked mission and it taught naruto that anything that a clone learns is transferred to him when the clone disperses.

Tsunade then told him he had to combine the two steps he had already learned to create the rasengan. Naruto had an idea and asked tsunade "can you untie my arm I want to create a hundred shadow clones and have each of them work on this so it'll be 100 me each working on this to speed it up". Tsunade had to admit that this was an ingenious idea so she untied his left arm saying "your smarter than you look gaki". Using this method naruto had finished learning rasengan in an hour. Jiraiya who had just gotten into the village and was stopping by the namikaze estate to see if minato was their or if he'd have to go to the hokage mansion to see him. Instead he saw naruto form a rasengan with one hand and shoved it into a tree where it did massive damage. He jumped behind naruto and said "that's my godson you've learned the rasengan so as a reward how about I teach you a new jutsu, it's a personal favorite of mine."

Naruto was at first shocked when he heard jiraiya behind him but became excited when he heard about this new jutsu. He asked "what is this jutsu Ero-sennin" jiraiya glared at naruto and said "it's the summoning jutsu but if you call me ero-sennin once more I refuse to teach you it". Tasunade couldn't help but laugh at jiraiya saying "why don't you like being called ero-sennin it fits you perfectly and even if you don't teach naruto the summoning technique he can ask his dad to". At this jiraiya sighed in defeat bi his thumb and ran through a quick series of handsigns then slammed his right hand on the ground and said "kuchiyose no justsu". Then in a puff of smoke a medium sized toad appeared then rolled out it's tongue which had a large scroll in it.

Jiraiya took the scroll rolled it and said "naruto sign you name on a blank spot using your own blood". Naruto did this then the scroll poofed away and jiraiya said "bite your thumb you signed the contract with then make the same hand-signs I did and using as much chakra as you can slam your palm on the ground." Naruto did so but didn't use as much chakra as he could so he ended up summoning a small taod name gamakichi who simply said "yo". Naruto didn't care that the toad was small he was just excited from getting on the first try as he jumped around in joy. When he calmed down gamakichi asked why he was summoned. Naruto said "I dint mean to summon you or any toad specifically I summoned you on my first try". Gamakichi sighed and turned to jiraiya and said "let me guess you had him sign the contract and without telling anything about us toads had him summon one". Jiraiya simply nodded and asked "can you do it for me I have to go see his dad the yondaime".

With that he left gamakichi with naruto and tsunade who was also leaving to go to the hospital since she wasn't needed with naruto anymore. Gamakichi then turned to naruto and said "remember what I tell you this is important, there are many types of toads at Mount Myōboku which is where I come from". He then continued on saying "there are large toads like my dad gamabunta they are about the size of the hokage mansion you summon them only if in a large battle against either a really strong ninja or another large summons, then there are medium sized toads like the one who had the scroll you signed their good at helping against average jounin level ninja, then there are small toads like me though in 3 to 4 years I'll be a large medium size toad but for now I'm small, small toads are good at reconnaissance into enemy basses and checking for traps that are low to the ground."

Naruto was amazed by how different toads were from each other but also how they were useful no matter their size. But gamakichi wasn't done expaining e continued on saying "then there are special type toads like Gama Hyōrō you can trap people in his stomach which is larger than his body though I don't know how, then theirs partial summoning which you can use to sumon the mout or stomach of a large toad this is usefull for trapping any enemy an giving youself the advantage. Then theirs the sages their the same size as me but are stronger than my dad and older than jiraiya theirs only two of them since no one is allowed to summon the great sage whose my dad's size and over 1000 years old. The two that can be summoned are the ones that taught jiraiya how to be a sage"

Naruto was once again amazed by the toads. He couldn't believe that anyone gamakichi's size could beat someone the size of the hokage's mansion. Once naruto seemed to have taken in all gamakichi has said he asked "is their anythign else I need to know?". Gamakichi thought for a moment then said "not really besides that you have to think about which toad you want to summon and adjust your chakra accordingly the larger the toad the more chakra needed to summon them anything else you learn will come from experience with the toads. Then he said "since that's all I'm going home summon me again sometime though" and with that he poofed away.

When minato got home he saw naruto talking with a medium sized toad name Gama. Minato went up and asked naruto what he was doing. Naruto turned around and said "ero-sennin taught me the summoning jutsu so I'm talking to Gama here to see what he can do but he won't talk." Miato laughed at this and said "naruto that's just how Gama is he never talks to anyone I'm not sure if he even can talk but still he's strong when in combat he wears samurai armor capable of stopping any sword. He is also the only toad I know who will pose with jiraiya-sensei". Gama then poofed away while naruto showed minato the rasengan.

Minato was impressed naruto had learned the rasengan so fast. He then said "well done naruto I'm proud of you so I'll give you something". He then went inside and came back with a glass bottle of water. Naruto looked at and asked "whats so special its just water?" minato shook his head and said "this water comes from Uzushiogakure your mom's home village. It will tell you what your primary and secondary chakra nature is. Naruto asked "what is chakra nature?" minato then drew a diagram to explain chakara natures to naruto.

Once he was sure naruto understood he told him to cup his hands. So naruto cupped his hands and Minato pored some of the water into naruto's hands and told him if he had a fire nature the water will boil, if earth it'll turn to mud, if water it'll turn a deep shade of blue, if lightning it'd glow, and if wind it would part in half. Naruto put some chakra into the water and it split so minato said "your primary element is wind which is very rare but powerful, now it'll show you your second element." The water then went back to normal before become a deep shade of blue so dark you couldn't see through it. Minato then said "your second is water that's good kushina has water as a primary."

Naruto then poured the water back into the bottle and asked "what do I do now that I know my element? Minato plucked a leaf off the ground and said "I want you to focus your chakra on splitting this leaf in half and you can use as many clones as you want to help learn this faster." The next day naruto sat with hundreds of clones all trying to cut the leaf, when sakura came up to him and asked "why did you use a shadow clone for the mission naruto?" before he could even answer sakura continued to lecture him "missions even low level ones should be done in person so we learn from them and can be better shinobi. Naruto looked at sakura then said "I did learn from them sakura-chan everything one of my shadow clones learns I learn and since all the missions are d-rank the real me isnt needed so I can focus on training instead." Sakura was stunned by this but when she recovered she asked "so if the mission was c-rank or higher you'd go in person" naruto nodded his head yes.

That's when minato came out of the house and said "that's good to hear because your team's next mission is an escort mission to the land of waves. Then one of the naruto clones jumped up and shouted "I did it I split the leaf in half!" the clone then dispersed. Sakura asked "what was that about and why the shadow clones" said clones were gradually dispersing letting the real naruto learn what they did. Minato answered sakura's question saying "they help naruto learn faster and he was learning how to use wind chakra". Sakura was impressed but then became worried when naruto collapsed and was quickly looking at him for injureries. Minato simply shrugged and said "he is fine he's just exhausted from using so much chakra and all the feedback from his clones, he'll be fine tomorrow especially when he remembers he has a mission so why don't you go home sakura you need to rest for tomorrow as well." So knowing naruto would be alright sakura went home.

The next day team 7 stood in the area where missions were assigned as minato went through papers looking for the mission for team7. When he found it he began to tell them the specifics of the mission "this an escort mission you are to escort a man named Tazuna to his home in the land of waves and guard him as he completes a bridge that will connect to the mainland which is why I am calling this a c-rank mission that begins once you meat him at the gate." Once at the gate they met tazuna who asked "where is the team that is supposed to escort me". Kakashi said "we are that team and you have nothing to worry about these three may be young but they are very dependable." Kakashi then told them to introduce themselves sakura went first and te man simply nodded, then saskue introduced him self at hearing saskue's last name Tazuna was slightly impressed, then naruto introduced himself. Tazuna couldn't contain his question once he heard naruto's last name so he asked "are you related to the hokage?" Naruto grinned and said "yep the hokage is my dad and I'll be just like him when I grow up".

With the introductions done they headed for the land of waves. But since Tazuna wasn't a ninja they had to walk which was a challenge for the three gennin who were used to just using the trees to get around faster. When the sun set the decided to set up camp for the night. Naruto then reached into his bag and pulled out three scrolls. Saskue and sakura noticed this an asked what was in them. Naruto said "these three here have instructions for three different wind style jutsu." Then he pulled out a forth scroll and said "and this one is the most important" saskue and sakura were thinking it must be some special jutsu but were disappointed when naruto said "it's a bowl of itchiraku ramen and its still warm." Saskue groaned thinking to himself "what sort of moron thinks ramen is more important then powerful jutsu." Meanwhile sakura hit naruto in the head and said "BAKA I thought it was some special jutsu instead its just ramen." "Do you ever eat anything besides ramen naruto?" his response was to make three shadow clones for the jutsus and to eat his ramen while saying "whats wrong with ramen sakura-chan".

Having witnessed all this Tazuna wondered how on earth these kids were going to be able to protect him against Gato ad his thugs. Nut mt importantly how would they even survive against Zabuza. These thoughts made Tazuna feel guilty about what he had gotten them caught up in. the next day while they were traveling two ninja jumped out of a puddle and attacked them. Naruto,saskue, and sajura jumped in front of Tazuna to protect him while kakashi dealt with the attackers.

**thanks for reading it means alot to me so if you could please comment and tell me what you think even if it is criticism(as long is it's honest criticism no bashing a character simply because you hate them i would still appreciate it but still i do prefer compliments and thank you to NaruDeeds and Belthazor for your reviews on previous chapters.**


	4. demon of the mist

Disclaimer: sadly I didnt get everything I wanted for christmas since I still don't own naruto even though it was on my list

**Demon of the Mist**

When Kakashi tried to take down the Demon Brother he was torn apart. Or so it appeared. Kakashi had used a Genjutsu to make it seem like he had been killed. But really he was hiding in a tree to see how his team would do without him. This to him was just a test to see if they were ready to be out of the village. If things seemed to get out of hand he was ready to intervene in an instant.

When Naruto and the others saw Kakashi killed their first instinct was to freak out. But their minds kicked in and Naruto said "Sasuke help me with these guys and Sakura protect the bridge builder." Naruto attacked the one on the left called Gozu while Sasuke attacked Meizu on the left. While fighting them they noticed that the two rogue ninja worked best as a pair complimenting the other.

This gave Sasuke an idea so he shouted to Naruto "we gotta split these two up there strong together but weak apart". So Naruto used his kage bunshin to force Gozu back and away from Meizu. Once apart Naruto ran through a series of hand signs and said Fūton: Renkūdan which knocked out Gozu. Saskue dealt with Meizu just as quickly using his Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu. This managed to knock out Meizu out even though he used his shuriken chain to keep the attack from killing him.

Naruto quickly tied up Gozu and brought him back to where the others were. Saskue had also tie up Meizu and was waiting for Naruto. When Naruto got there he looked at Tazuna and said "these guys are rogue Chunnin from the mist, this mission is more than a C-rank". Tazuna didn't say anything since Naruto wasn't done speaking "what aren't you telling us old man?"

Kakashi then appeared beside Naruto and said "I'd like to know that to before we decide whether or not to continue this mission." Sasuke and Sakura looked shocked to see Kakashi standing there while Naruto just smirked. Kakashi looked at Naruto and said "We'll talk about how you knew they were Chunnin later, but first Tazuna here has some explaining to do."

Tazuna sighed and began to tell them about the bridge, Gatou, and the condition of the land of waves. He then said "now you see why I called it a c-rank mission, we don't have enough money to hire Shinobi for a b-rank mission we barely had enough for a c-rank." Naruto and the others nodded in understanding waiting for Tazuna to continue. He then said "I'll understand if you turn back now or only escort me to wave then leave since that's what you were paid to do."

Naruto looked at Kakashi and said "we can't turn back now our mission was to protect Tazuna till the bridge is complete, so even if we didn't get the whole truth or the mission is bigger than expected we have to complete it." Sakura and Saskue both voiced their agreement with Naruto about continuing the mission regardless of the difficulty.

Kakashi nodded his head and said "then it's decided we will continue what the mission to guard Tazuna till the bridge is complete." Then he turned to his team and said "You three did a good job of handling your selves even when you thought I was dead". The three smiled at the praise while Kakashi continue saying "You are Shinobi, which means you must be prepared to see your comrades die but you can't let it stop you from completing the mission, but this does not mean you abandon your comrades for the sake of the mission." This confused the three Gennin until Kakashi said "in the leaf village those who fail their mission are trash but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash, they're traitors.' He then turned to Naruto and asked "now how did you know those two were Chunnin?"

Naruto then reached into his pouch and pulled out a copy of the bingo book. He then said "My dad has a habit of misplacing things, so he keeps always has extra copies of things like this." Kakashi and Sasuke didn't seem to believe this so Naruto turned to Sakura. He asked "Tell them it's true Sakura, you know my dad has a bad habit of misplacing things and that's why he keeps extra copies of things like a bingo book."

Sakura then said "he's right Hokage-sama is bad a keeping track of things." She then laughed "The first time Naruto brought me to his house I thought his mom was going to kill his dad when he said that he couldn't find his wedding ring, luckily for him it was on the counter; otherwise Kushina-san might really have killed him." This caused Naruto to laugh and the others to look completely dumbfounded by this revelation that the Hokage wasn't perfect.

Naruto then said "that's why dad keeps extra copies of things like the recent bingo book that way he always has one if he needs it, this one I have is one of his extras I sorta bored it from his desk without telling him."

Kakashi then sighed and said "do you know how to find someone in their?" Naruto shock his head. When he found Gozu and Meizu it had been after looking through the whole book. Kakashi then pulled his copy out and said "The book is arranged in groups, all those from Kirigakure will be in one group and those from Konoha would be in another group." Naruto nodded so Kakashi continued saying "they are further divided so that new entries are before older entries that way it's easier to find who your looking for".

Naruto nodded again and said "That makes things easier, but what are we going to with these two?" He then pointed at Gozu and Meizu who were still tied up and unconscious. Kakashi thought about this for a bit deciding whether or not or release them or leave them tied up and unconscious.

He then said "wake them up and then we'll put them in a Genjutsu so that they leave and don't follow us." He then placed them in the jutsu and untied them. Gozu and Meizu then wandered off under the influence of the Genjutsu. Tazuna and team-7 continued on through the forest following the path till the trees thinned out and they came to a long river. There they saw a boat waiting for them. They got into the boat and began to use the paddles to travel up the river and all the way to the land of waves.

When Naruto saw the bridge he was about to comment on its size but was quickly stopped by Tazuna. Tazuna then said "Stay quiet we don't want to be caught that's why we're not using the motor and are traveling in this thick mist. A little while later they made it to shore and were walking down the path to Tazuna's house.

Kakashi then yelled "everyone down!" right as a huge blade spiraled across where they had been standing. A man who Naruto recognized from the bingo book as the Demon of The Hidden Mist, Momochi Zabuza then jumped out of the trees and landed on the sword's handle. Naruto was about to jump and attack him but Kakashi put his arm out to stop Naruto. He then said "This guy is way out of your league, leave him to me." Kakashi then began to lift up his forehead protector. He then said without turning around "Naruto you and the others protect Tazuna that is our teamwork against a Jounin Zabuza"

At this Zabuza said "I'm honored to get to see your Sharingan eye already copy-ninja Kakashi." This information shocked Tazuna and Saskue who knew what the Sharingan was. It also confused Naruto and Sakura who although they knew of the Uchiha had never heard of the Sharingan.

Kakashi then said in voice that made it clear he wasn't joking "You could simply leave now Zabuza, then I wouldn't have to kill you". Zabuza didn't reply he instead jumped onto the river that was behind him. Then he made a hand-sign and said "Kirigakure no Jutsu" then a large thick mist covered everything in sight. Kakashi said "You guys be careful Zabuza is a master of the silent killing technique so don't let your guard down."

While Saskue and Sakura appeared to be shaken by the killing intent Zabuza was releasing, Naruto wasn't fazed at all due to having felt the killing intent of the Kyuubi when he had used its chakra. Kakashi turned to Saskue and Sakura and said "Don't worry I don't let my comrades die."

Zabuza then appeared in the middle of the three Gennin and said "We'll see about that." Kakashi managed to use his incredible speed to intercept Zabuza and stab him in the stomach. But it turned out that the Zabuza was a water clone. Naruto then yelled "Behind you!" but it turned out that the Kakashi that Zabuza proceeded to cut in half was also a water clone. Which surprised Zabuza as he thought Kakashi had copied the water clone technique in the mist. Kakashi then appeared behind Zabuza with a kunai on Zabuza's throat and said "it's over".

Zabuza only laughed and then a second Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and his sword to remove Kakashi's head. This stunned everyone including Kakashi who just managed to duck to avoid being beheaded. Only for Zabuza to kick him in the abdomen and send him flying back into the water. Zabuza then made a few hand-signs and said "water prison jutsu" trapping Kakashi in a sphere of water.

Zabuza then made a water clone and sent it to kill Naruto and the others. He laughed, saying, "Wearing that headband does not make you a real ninja, a real ninja is someone who has survived numerous near death situations." The water clone then disappeared and hit Naruto only to discover that the Naruto he hit was a shadow clone. This shocked everyone.

Naruto ran through a series of hand signs and said "Fūton: Daitoppa" creating a large blast of wind that caught the water clone by surprise and dispelled it. The real Naruto then appeared by Saskue and looked at him and whispered a plan in his ear. Sasuke nodded and he and Naruto ran through a series of hand signs. Naruto combined his Fūton: Daitoppa with Sasuke's Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu to create a large blast of flame heading for the real Zabuza.

Zabuza had to release his hold on Kakashi so he could use both hands. He then made a series of hand signs and said "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu" this collided with the giant flames and the two cancelled each other out. Naruto and Sasuke's jutsu had done just what it was supposed to do force Zabuza to release Kakashi from the water prison. Zabuza then said "You have some impressive students Kakashi I never would have expected Gennin to combine a wind technique with a fire technique."

Kakashi said "I won't fall for the same jutsu twice" and he began to copy Zabuza's hand-signs and at the same time they said "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu" two large dragons made entirely of water formed and clashed with each other only to cancel out. The collision of the two jutsu caused a massive explosion of water soaking everyone. And when it died down it reveled Kakashi holding a kunai pushing against Zabuza's sword. They then jumped back from each other with Kakashi again copying Zabuza's movements.

Kakashi then began to finish Zabuza's sentences, which was causing Zabuza to very quickly freak out. Kakashi then said "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu" catching Zabuza by surprise and propelling him into the trees. Right as Kakashi was about to slice Zabuza's throat two senbon needles pierced Zabuza's neck.

Then a masked ninja appeared next to Zabuza'a corpse. The first thing everyone noticed was that this person had the hidden mist symbol on his mask. Kakashi after checking to see if Zabuza was really dead asked "You're a hunter-nin from the Mist correct?" The hunter-nin said "yes I am a hunter-nin, I have been looking for an opportunity to kill Zabuza for a long time so thank you for providing it". The hunter-nin then picked up the body of Zabuza and left.

Kakashi sighed and said "This won't be the last time we see Zabuza or that masked hunter-nin". The others looked questioningly at Kakashi so he explained "if that was a real hunter-nin then they would have cut off Zabuza'a head stored it in a scroll then destroyed Zabuza'a body". This caused everyone to realize that Kakashi was right and that they would be seeing Zabuza again before this mission was over.

They then continued on till they reached Tazuna's home. Once there, they met Tazuna's daughter Tsunami who helped them get Kakashi settled since he was exhausted from using the Sharingan so much. Latter once Kakashi woke up it was time for dinner where they met Tazuna's grandson Inari. Inari was quick to say "mom they are going to die". This caused Naruto to shout "There's no way I'm going to die I'm going to be Hokage the hero who protect my village."

Inari scoffed and said "there's no such thing as a hero". He then left to go look at the ocean form his room. Naruto followed him planning to tell him off but when he heard Inari crying decided it was better to leave him alone. So he went back to where Kakashi and the others were and asked "what are we going to do now?"

Kakashi response was "training". So Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke followed him outside. He then told them "I'm going to teach you how to properly use chakra". He then told them to climb a tree using only chakra. Sakura and Naruto did this on the first try Sakura was able to since she had very good chakra control and Naruto because he had already learned this. Saskue on the other hand was having difficulty and was frustrated that his two teammates had made it look so simple and had done it on the first try. Kakashi told Naruto and Sakura "stay here and when Sasuke can make it up the tree come get me."

Naruto and Sakura then sat down a little ways from Sasuke. Sakura then turned to Naruto and said "when did you learn wind jutsu?"

Naruto then said "it was a reward from my dad when I learned to do the Rasengan with one hand."

Sakura looked at him questioningly and said "Rasengan?" Naruto then formed the Rasengan in his right hand then smashed it into the ground to show Sakura how strong it was. She was amazed at the damage it had done since where Naruto had hit was now a crater that Naruto's head could fit in. She then asked "how does it work?" Naruto told her the three steps of making the Rasengan. She was astounded that Naruto who was largely seen as hopeless had learned something so incredible. She then told him "that's amazing it must take a lot of chakra control to use, it's no wonder the tree climbing exercise was no problem for you."

Naruto smiled at the praise and said "Yeah but it took me awhile to get the hang of the tree climbing, but you did it on the first try Sakura-chan that's really amazing". Sakura smiled and blushed at the praise. She then asked "Naruto why do some of the villagers look at you like your some kind of monster, I noticed it when you we were walking to your house".

Naruto's smile was replaced with a frown and he said "Are you sure you really want to know?" She didn't say anything merely nodded her head. He sighed, wanting to tell her anything but the truth, but unable to lie to her he said, "What they teach in the academy about the Kyuubi incident is a lie. My dad didn't kill it because since it's made from chakra it can't be killed. Instead to protect the village he sealed it in me". Sakura was stunned by this and had tears in her eyes as Naruto continued, "Dad wanted the villagers to see me as a hero, but instead they see me as the Kyuubi itself, that's why he forbid people to speak about the Kyuubi and they lied in the academy".

Sakura then hugged Naruto and said "You may have a monster inside of you but that doesn't make you a monster. You'll always be Naruto the kind hearted baka to me". Naruto was touched by this since he had been afraid Sakura would also think of him as a monster. She then said "do you remember the first time we met?"

Naruto smiled and said "Yeah I remember, we were little then and you were being picked on by a bunch of bullies who were making fun of your forehead till I chased them away". Sakura smiled at this and said "do you remember what you said to me after that".

Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head and said "yeah, I said that I liked your forehead and that it made me want to kiss it". When he said this he turned away to hide his blushing face. Sakura did the same since her face was also blushing.

Sakura then said "That's how come I know you're not a monster; no monster could ever be that kind or caring". Naruto then acting solely on impulse leaned forward and kissed Sakura on the forehead and said "Thanks Sakura-chan that means a lot to me". Sakura's entire face now matched her hair as she said "Your welcome Naruto, I meant every word of it, even though you can be a baka sometimes you are definitely no monster".

Kakashi then came and asked Naruto and Sakura to follow Tazuna around as he worked on the bridge. So they went with Tazuna to guard him from any attack. Later around noon they went into the city. The place was wreaked; buildings were falling apart and looked like they would collapse under a gentle breeze. But the worst was the hopeless expressions on the faces of the adults and the children who looked like they were starving. Tazuna then said "this is because of Gatou he turned this place into what you see now, that's why the bridge must be finished; it'll revive this dying country and bring hope back to its people". He then told them the story of Kaiza who was a hero to the village and father to Inari until he was killed by Gatou.

That night at dinner Inari asked "Why do you guys bother to try so hard? No matter what you're still no match for Gatou's men! The strong will kill the weak!"

Naruto looked up and glared at Inari and said "Listen kid, just 'cause things are bad doesn't mean you get to be a little punk and give up hope !" he punches him, "Half my village hates me because they think I'm a menace, but you don't see me hating the world or wanting to kill them do you? Do you know why that is Inari? It's because, just like you I have a family who loves me! Your dad may be gone, but your mom's still here, and loves you with everything she has! Her and pops want nothing more for you than happiness and for you to grow up safe, and all you do is whine and complain and act like a little brat! Just because your dad is gone doesn't mean you have the right to treat people badly and sulk! Do you really think he'd want you to act like this? He sounds just like my dad, so I can tell you, he'd want you to protect the people you love, not lie down and die like a dog! So stand up and fight!"

Inari was stunned by this as was everyone at the table. They had never heard Naruto talk like this before. Naruto usually just kept what he was really feeling bottled up and acted like a carefree idiot on the outside. He couldn't do that now because in he could relate to what Inari was feeling. Inari left the room and Naruto went upstairs to bed. Kakashi then sighed and said "Sorry about that but Naruto's had a rough life even with him being the son of the Hokage he is still hated by most of the village for something he didn't even do". Sakura didn't stay to hear the rest of what Kakashi had to say instead she went upstairs to see if Naruto was okay. When she found him he was already asleep so she took out her sleeping bag laid it down by Naruto and went to sleep as well.

Kakashi then came and asked Naruto and Sakura to follow Tazuna around as he worked on the bridge. So they went with Tazuna to guard him from any attack. Later around noon they went into the city. The place was wreaked; buildings were falling apart and looked like they would collapse under a gentle breeze. But the worst was the hopeless expressions on the faces of the adults and the children who looked like they were starving. Tazuna then said "this is because of Gatou he turned this place into what you see now, that's why the bridge must be finished; it'll revive this dying country and bring hope back to its people". He then told them the story of Kaiza who was a hero to the village and father to Inari until he was killed by Gatou.

That night at dinner Inari asked "Why do you guys bother to try so hard? No matter what you're still no match for Gatou's men! The strong will kill the weak!"

Naruto looked up and glared at Inari and said "Listen kid, just 'cause things are bad doesn't mean you get to be a little punk and give up hope !" he punches him, "Half my village hates me because they think I'm a menace, but you don't see me hating the world or wanting to kill them do you? Do you know why that is Inari? It's because, just like you I have a family who loves me! Your dad may be gone, but your mom's still here, and loves you with everything she has! Her and pops want nothing more for you than happiness and for you to grow up safe, and all you do is whine and complain and act like a little brat! Just because your dad is gone doesn't mean you have the right to treat people badly and sulk! Do you really think he'd want you to act like this? He sounds just like my dad, so I can tell you, he'd want you to protect the people you love, not lie down and die like a dog! So stand up and fight!"

Inari was stunned by this as was everyone at the table. They had never heard Naruto talk like this before. Naruto usually just kept what he was really feeling bottled up and acted like a carefree idiot on the outside. He couldn't do that now because in he could relate to what Inari was feeling. Inari left the room and Naruto went upstairs to bed. Kakashi then sighed and said "Sorry about that but Naruto's had a rough life even with him being the son of the Hokage he is still hated by most of the village for something he didn't even do". Sakura didn't stay to hear the rest of what Kakashi had to say instead she went upstairs to see if Naruto was okay. When she found him he was already asleep so she took out her sleeping bag laid it down by Naruto and went to sleep as well.

**first off i would like to thank my friend Daniel who edited this for me. Secondly review please**

**list of jutsu used(in order of appearance)**

**1. Fūton: Renkūdan- wind release: drilling air bullet**

**2. Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu- fire release: great fireball technique**

**3. Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu- water release: great waterfall technique**

**4. Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu- water release: water dragon bullet technique**

**5. Fūton: Daitoppa- wind release: great breakthrough**


	5. battle on the bridge

Disclaimer: as I've said before I do not own Naruto(sad but true)

Now I have a question for all my readers. Would ya'll prefer I keep the jutsu in Japanese with the English translation at the bottom of the story or would you like me to put the jutsu in English? When yo give me an answer it would help to have a reason also I will go with the majority to decide this.

**Battle on the Bridge**

Naruto woke up and while scratching the back of his head he sensed something was different from when he went to sleep so he started looking around the room. The room itself seemed exactly as he left it when he went to sleep, then he noticed something pink out of the corner of his eye. When he looked closer at the pink he realized it was Sakura and she was starting to wake up. As she did he said to himself "She looks really cute right now, but if she notices me she might get mad and hit me".

Sakura woke up and saw Naruto staring at her, which made her blush slightly. She then asked "What are staring at, Naruto?".

Naruto shook his head. He hadn't realized he was still staring at her. He then said hurriedly, "Sorry, Sakura-chan. I couldn't help but stare at you. But… why were you asleep in my room?".

Sakura's face was starting to look the color of her hair. She then said "You still haven't told me why you were staring, and as for why I'm in here, it's because you seemed upset last night and when I checked on you, you were already asleep and since I was tired I just slept here with you.".

Naruto was blushing so he turned his head so Sakura wouldn't see. Then he said, "I was staring because you looked really cute when you were waking up, Sakura-chan, and thanks for checking on me." He then braced himself, expecting Sakura to hit him." When the expected hit didn't come, he looked up to see Sakura blushing even more than before.

Sakura then asked "You thought I looked cute?". Naruto shook his head yes. Sakura smiled and then did something Naruto wasn't expecting at all. She kissed him on the cheek! She then said "Thanks, Naruto-kun" with her cheeks burning red.

Sakura then turned and ran off to go eat breakfast, leaving a stunned Naruto sitting on the floor. Naruto sat in shock, thinking to himself, "Sakura-chan just kissed me…. I really hope this isn't a dream!" Naruto then went and joined the others for breakfast.

At breakfast, Kakashi told them that they would be spending the day on the bridge guarding Tazuna. They then left for the bridge with Tazuna. Around mid-afternoon, a thick mist rolled in, covering the entire bridge. Kakashi realized that there was a vast amount of chakra in this mist and shouted to his comrades, "Everyone be on guard! This mist isn't natural."

At that moment, Zabuza and the masked Hunter Nin appeared. Zabuza turned to the masked Hunter Nin and said "Haku, separate them from the bridge builder." The masked shinobi called Haku nodded and then disappeared and reappeared, hitting Naruto and Sasuke away from Tazuna. Kakashi then leapt at Zabuza while Sakura stood in front of Tazuna with a kunai in hand.

Sasuke tried to attack Haku attempting to land a kick or punch, only to be dodged by Haku every time. Whenever Haku dodged, Sasuke and Naruto tried to hit Haku, but the masked man never left even the slightest opening. To the two Genin, it didn't even seem like Haku was having trouble dodging. Haku then made a sign with one hand and said "Hidden Art-Ice Style: Makyō Hyōshō!". Then Sasuke was surrounded by a dome made of mirrors. Sasuke then used his Grand Fireball jutsu to try and break the mirrors, but it failed. Sasuke didn't even get a chance to try again, as he was too busy dodging Haku's barrage of senbon. He shouted in frustration, "Naruto, try and break the dome from the outside!"

When Naruto heard Sasuke, he immediately began to attack the dome. He fired off repeated attacks from hitting the closest mirror with his fists to firing multiple Wind Bullets at the mirror. Still, he couldn't even scratch the mirror's surface. So he tried something new. He formed a Rasengan in his right hand and slammed it against the mirror, but somehow all it did was leave a round scratch in the mirror. Cursing, he then had and idea and said to himself, "If one Rasengan won't work, then let's try two." Naruto then formed a Rasengan in each hand, which was no easy feat, and slammed both of them into the same spot as the first Rasengan. But still, the mirror wouldn't break.

At the same time inside the mirrors, Sasuke was becoming exhausted and was quickly running out of chakra. But still, he kept trying to hit Haku only to get stabbed with flying senbon. Then, just when it seemed a senbon would kill him, his Sharingan eyes - the right-of-passage of the Uchiha Clan - awakened. With his Sharingan active, everything seemed to slow down and he dodged the senbon that, had it hit him, would have definitely killed him. At the same time he thought to himself "What is that idiot Naruto doing out their? He should have been able to break the mirrors by now. If not for finally getting my Sharingan, I would be dead and unable to accomplish my dream of killing Itachi and avenging the death of my father."

Sasuke was so distracted by his own thoughts that he failed to notice Haku had sped up. This cost him dearly and he was pierced by multiple senbon. Thescream that echoed through the ice mirrors cut Sasuke's comrades to the core.

Outside the dome, Naruto heard Saskue's cry of agony and shouted "What he hell is happening in their?" Just as Naruto started to panic, he saw a gap at the top of the dome. Silently thanking God for that, he leapt through the small gap at the top of the dome. Once inside, he saw Sasuke laying in a pool of blood with many cuts and gashes and more than a few dozen senbon stuck in his body. Naruto then ran in front of Sasuke and blocked a group of senbon from hitting his prone figure.

Sasuke, upon noticing Naruto, snarled, "What are you doing in here? You were supposed to attack form the outside, you loser. Now we're both going to die." Sasuke then collapsed completely. Using the Sharingan when he had so little chakra left had taken it's toll on him, along with all of his wounds and blood loss.

Naruto then said "Tajū Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" creating over a hundred shadow clones who started attacking all of the mirrors at the same time. Meanwhile, the real Naruto checked on Sasuke, noting that although he still had a pulse. it was weak and very faint. Naruto bit his thumb to draw blood and made the hand signs Boar, Dog, Monkey, and Snake and then slamming his hands onto the ground and shouted "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" and summoned a small-sized toad. He then said to the toad, "Take Sasuke here and hide him in your stomach then, get out of this dome."

The toad nodded in understanding and proceeded to swallow Sasuke. It then reverse-summoned itself back to Mount Myōboku.

Haku had never seen anything like that before and couldn't help but ask out loud, "What was that technique? I've never heard of someone having their team-mate swallowed." While he was asking this, he ended Naruto's last shadow clone.

Naruto turned and glared at Haku, saying " It's known as the Gamagakure no Jutsu. I used it to get Sasuke away safely while I deal with you." Then a massive quantity of red, evil chakra began to seep out of Naruto as his features changed. The anger Naruto was feeling from seeing Sasuke so close to death had awakened the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Haku was stunned by this chakra that was more malevolent than anything he had ever felt before. He wondered to himself, "What sort of chakra is this? It has a killing intent so strong that compared to it, even Zabuza- sama's is like an insect." It was then that he noticed that above Naruto, the chakra had taken on the shape of a demonic fox's evilly grinning face.

At that time, Naruto unleashed a terrifying, monstrous roar that shattered the mirrors. He then leapt forward an grabbed Haku by the throat. Naruto then growled in a voice not of this world, "Why does someone as strong as you work for thugs like Gato and Zabuza?"

Haku calmly replied, "I do not work for Gato. I am simply a tool for Zabuza- sama to use and throw away at his discretion as he sees fit. If you wish to kill me, do so. My life has no meaning if I am simply a tool that cannot perform the tasks set to it by it's master."

At hearing this, Naruto returned to normal and he asked, "Why are you so content to be used as a tool?"

Haku then told Naruto of how he met Zabuza and then said "That is why I will always serve Zabuza-sama." He then begged Naruto, "Please kill me. Since I lost, I am of no use to Zabuza-sama"

Naruto, unable to understand Haku's reasoning, tried to do as asked but was so exhausted he only succeeded in rendering Haku unconscious with his punch. This punch shattered Haku's mask, and for the first time, Naruto saw Haku's real face. Haku then slumped to the ground, seemingly unconscious. So Naruto turned to see Kakashi, who in his hand held what looked to be lightning. Zabuza was being held in place by a group of dogs wearing Leaf head protectors who Naruto could only assume were Kakashi's summons.

Naruto then saw Kakashi charge at Zabuza shouting, "Raikiri!". But just as Kakashi was about to hit Zabuza, Haku appeared in front of him and took the hit for his beloved Zabuza. He then turned and smiled weakly at Zabuza, glad that he could be of use to him one last time. Zabuza then tried to cut through Haku in order to kill Kakashi, but the Copy Ninja jumped back, thereby dodging the attack and dragging Haku's dead body with him for a moment.

Then a short, pudgy man surrounded by mercenaries and Ronin walked out of the mist and said quite calmly, "Since it appears your arms are broken and you can't kill the bridge builder, I am ending my contract with you, Zabuza." Gato then went over to Haku's body and kicked it, growling "Useless brat couldn't even kill a stupid kid."

Naruto couldn't believe that Zabuza let Gato disrespect Haku like that and he screamed at the assassin, "Zabuza, don't you care at all? Haku gave his life for you and yet you just stand there and let that bastard Gato disrespect him and his sacrifice like that? Haku devoted his entire life to you and all you do is stand there as his body is disrespected? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Although Zabuza didn't want to admit it, the young Genin's words had hurt. He did care for Haku as much more than a tool, but he would never admit it. He couldn't stand it anymore and barked at Naruto "Shut up, kid! Your words… they hurt more than any blade." He then turned his gaze to Sakura. "You, girl…. Give me your kunai." "What?" Sakura stammered. She looked to Kakashi, who nodded. She then threw her kunai knife to Zabuza who allowed it to slice through the wrappings across his mouth and caught just the handle in his shark-like teeth.

Then the Demon of the Hidden Blood-Mist Village looked at Gato. His aura for just a moment or so, looked just as demonic as Naruto's had in the mirrors and he charged Gato and his men. He killed anyone who got in his way, even as Gato's men stabbed him with swords, knives, kamas, and assorted blade-type weapons. And then, when he reached Gato as the crime boss tried to run, he grinned evilly and snarled at Gato "You know where we're going, don't you, Gato? You and I are going straight to Hell together. I hear there are demons there of every imaginable shape and size. Sounds like just the place for a demon swordsman like me; but for you… hahahaHA!" And with one swift head movement, he cut off Gato's head with the knife in his teeth. But he had used all of his remaining strength and collapsed from his injuries. He then asked Kakashi, "Could you bring me to Haku…?" Kakashi obliged his fallen adversary and Zabuza died, wishing he could apologize to Haku but finally finding peace after so many years of bloodshed and slaughter.

Despite the scene that had just occurred, there was still Gato's army of thugs. They said that since there was no more Gato to pay them, they'd have to take the pay out of Team 7's blood. However, just then Inari and the villagers came to stand up for themselves like Naruto told them. Naruto made a dozen clones and turned to Gato's remaining men. Kakashi did the same thing and told the thugs, "Leave or die". Gato's men then fled, having lost the number advantage.

Once the battle was over, Sakura and Tazuna came over to where Naruto and Kakashi were. The first thing they noticed was that Sasuke wasn't there. So Sakura asked "Naruto, where is Sasuke?".

Naruto then told them about his battle with Haku and how he had summoned a toad to keep Sasuke safe. He then summoned that same toad back and had him release Sasuke. Sakura then removed the senbon from him and bandaged his wounds, saying "He should wake up soon. He just collapsed from exhaustion".

Later that day before leaving to return to Konoha, Team 7 buried Zabuza and Haku next to each other and used Zabuza's sword and Haku's scarf to mark their graves.

Once back in Konoha, Kakashi left Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, saying he had to go give a mission report to the Hokage. While there, he found out the Chunin Exams would be coming up soon and were being held in Konoha that year.

Minato looked at Kakashi very seriously and asked, "Do you believe your team is ready to take the exam?" Kakashi nodded his head. Minato then signed a paper on his desk and said, "Then they are now officially entered in the Chunin Exams."

**As always people thanks for reading and please review. Thanks to my friend who edited this and fixed all my bad spelling. Also sorry if this chapter seems shorter than the others but I decided that the Chunin Exams should get it's start as a seperate chapter. Don't forgot to answer the question i asked at the top about what language you would like the jutsu to be in.**


	6. chunin exam

Disclaimer: I as I've said in every chapter before this, I do NOT own Naruto. If I did, there would be some major changes, like Jiraiya not dieing and Sasuke actually being killed by Itachi in the Uchiha massacre. Enjoy! XD

**The Exam begins**

While Kakashi was talking to Minato, Naruto and Sakura were walking to Naruto's house together since Sasuke had already left for his house. While they were walking, they came across three unfamiliar people. One had dark burgundy hair pushed to the side to show a tattoo on his forehead and a large gourd on his back, another was dressed in all black and had strange purple makeup on his face, and the girl among the three strangers had medium-length sandy-blonde hair, up in four big buns like a panda with extra ears wearing a single light purple-colored garment that extended from below her shoulders to halfway down her thighs, all together with fishnet stockings on her legs.

Naruto then noticed that the one dressed in black was holding a kid up and seemed to be ready to hit him. Naruto then noticed the headband around the girl's neck was unfamiliar to him and said "What are shinobi from another village doing here?" This caught the attention of the three foreign shinobi.

The girl then spoke up, saying, "We're here for the Chuunin exams. Now leave before you get hurt, kid." The one dressed in the strange black outfit simply grinned in agreement with the girl on his left.

Naruto glared at them and said, "Put the kid down, or else". The foreign shinobi ignored him and went to hit the kid, but Naruto caught his fist. Then he said, "I'm Namikaze Naruto, son of the Hokage and if you don't let the kid go right now, I'll have you thrown out of the village for assaulting the Sundaime Hokage's grandson." Naruto spoke with utter confidence and authority, having gotten close enough to recognize Sarutobi Konohamaru, a mere child just learning the way of the ninja.

Naruto's words caught the attention of all three foreign shinobi and the boy in black dropped Konohamaru. However, the girl spoke again and said with a cruel grin, "Then maybe we should beat you up instead of this kid." The one in black voiced his agreement with his comrade, saying, "I like that idea, Temari," with a grin.

Naruto just smirked and said, "Go ahead, but all you'll accomplish is getting beaten and being locked up by the Leaf ANBU for attacking a Leaf Village ninja."

The smirks the two shinobi had won moments ago vanished when Sakura said, "I'm sure Sunagakure wouldn't too be happy if you caused trouble and ruined it's reputation." She knew exactly where they were from, having recognized the symbol on Temari's forehead protector.

The red-haired Sand gennin, who had remained silent up to this point replied by quietly saying, "Let's go, Temari, Kankuro. We'll deal with these weaklings and the rest of the weaklings in this village during the exam." The three Sand shinobi turned to leave when a small rock hit Kankuro's head, then rebounded to hit Temari, and it would have hit the third, but the rock was stopped by sand that slithered out of the gourd on his back so fast the others didn't even have time to see it before the rock was already harmlessly on the ground.

Kankuro spun around and shouted "Who the hell threw that?" He got his answer when Sasuke stepped out of a tree's shadow, standing on a branch. He then said, "Me. I am Uchiha Sasuke, and you would do well to not compare my teammates to weaklings. If you dare to do so again, I will gladly show you a fate worse than death."

What Sasuke failed to notice was that the Sand shinobi weren't listening to him. Temari and Kankuro were too busy glancing nervously at their quiet companion. Konohamaru took this opportunity to run over to Naruto and Sakura and hide behind them.

Once the red-haired Sand ninja had calmed down, he looked up at Sasuke with a murderous glare. The Sand shinobi then turned to leave without a word, but Sasuke stopped them by saying "Hey, you. The loser with the gourd. What's your name, tough guy?" with an arrogant, confident smirk. The other two Sand gennin froze when their companion looked over his shoulder and spoke in his dark voice, "My name is Sabaku no Gaara. You would do well to remember it." The Sand shinobi trio then left without another word.

Naruto turned and looked at Sasuke and groaned, "Man, why'd you have to steal my thunder by being all dark and mysterious, man?"

Sakura just sighed and turned to Konohamaru and asked kindly, "What did you do to get those guys so mad at you?" At this, Konohamaru scratched the back of his with a sheepish grin on his face.

He then whispered something in Naruto's ear. When Naruto heard what Konohamaru said, he was shocked and said loudly, "Damn, kid. Are crazy or do you just have a death wish?" Konohamaru didn't answer so Naruto continued, "When you do things like that, the first rule is _never get caught_."

Sakura was confused by what Naruto was saying since she hadn't heard what Konohamaru had said. Sasuke, however, could not have cared less. Now that the Sand trio had gone he had no reason to stay, so without a word to either of his friends, he left. Sakura then looked at Naruto sweetly and asked, "Naruto-kun what did Konohamaru do?".

When Naruto looked at Sakura, he noticed she was cutely pouting and he couldn't help but answer her. He told her, "Konohamaru here accidentally ran into that girl from Suna". Sakura didn't see this as anything worth beating up a kid for but, Naruto wasn't done. He then said, "Then this perverted bakka grabbed her ass, and if that weren't bad enough, when she picked him up he grabbed her boobs."

Konohamaru then said, "I just wanted to see if they were real or not! What's so wrong with that?" At this, Naruto cringed and backed as far away from Konohamaru as possible. Then, without warning, Sakura slammed her fist into Konohamaru's face.

As she sent him flying into next week, she shouted, "You damn filthy pervert! Just wait 'til I get my hands on you! I'll beat that pervetedness right out of you!"

Naruto then cautiously walked up to Sakura and said, "Now, now, Sakura-chan. Calm down. We don't need you killing him. It was a stupid mistake on his part which, I'm sure won't happen again."

Sakura then turned to him and sighed. "Alright, if you say so. I'm gonna' head home to shower and take a nap. Traveling all day's got me exhausted." But before she left, Naruto decided to return the favor from when they were in the Land of Waves. So, as she was leaving, he caught her wrist and spun her around then kissed her on the cheek and said with a huge grin, "Bye, Sakura-chan." Sakura's face was now as red as a tomato as she said stammered, "Bu-uh, bye, Naruto-kun. I'll uh, s-see you tomorrow."

The next day, Team 7 was waiting on a small wooden bridge for Kakashi to show up. They had been waiting for over an hour when Naruto said "Why did we have to get here so early when our sensei has no sense of time?" Sasuke nodded his head in agreement while Sakura fumed inwardly about having to get up so early for no reason. Just then, Kakashi appeared on the bridge's railing.

He then said "Good morning, team." Naruto shouted angrily at him, "Kakashi-sensei, you told us to meet you here an hour ago!" Kakashi just smiled (with his eye) serenely and replied "Yeah… sorry about that, but I was just lost on the path of life." Then all three gennin, even Sasuke, shouted back, "Kakashi-sensei, you liar!" The masked shinobi just chuckled before looking down at them seriously and saying, "I have something very important to tell you." He then held out three small pieces of paper, handing one to each of them. He then said, "I have nominated you for the Chuunin Exam, but whether you take it or not is up to you." Naruto was barely containing his excitement And while Sasuke remained impassive on the outside, on the inside, he too was excited. Sakura, on the other hand, was more than a bit nervous. Kakashi then said, "If you decide to take it, then it starts at 4 o'clock sharp in room 301 today. Just fill out the back of the forms I gave you". And with that, he left in a puff of smoke.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke remained silent at first, thinking about the Chuunin Exams when Naruto broke the silence, saying, "I'm going for it! After all even if we fail, we can just retake it next year." Sasuke nodded his head in silent agreement. All that was left was for Sakura to decide if she wanted to take the exams or not. Finally, she agreed to take it as well.

They then went to the academy to take the exam. But when they got there, they noticed a crowd in front of the door. In front of that crowd were two Leaf ninja who looked a little older than Naruto. One of them then hit a girl with hair in buns when she tried to get by. Sasuke said to the two shinobi in front of the door, "There's nothing wrong with thinning out the competition a bit, but you'll let me pass and remove this surrounding Genjutsu. I'm going to the third floor." Those around the door looked confused, since they hadn't even realized that they were really on the second floor, due to the Genjutsu cast by the two mischievous shinobi. He then turned to Sakura and said, "I'm sure you noticed it too, Sakura, you're the best at analytical thinking." This gave Sakura a boost of confidence, getting rid of any anxiety she may have had beforehand.

Then one of the ninja blocking the door said with a laugh, "So, you noticed. But did you notice this?" He then attempted to kick Sasuke, only to be blocked by a guy wearing a green jumpsuit with a bowl cut hair style.

The jumpsuit kid's teammates sighed and said, "What happened to not drawing attention to ourselves, Lee?" Lee just mumbled, "Well…" and blushed. He then walked over to Sakura and said "Please be my girlfriend! I'll protect you with my life!"

Sakura backed away from him and said, "No way! You're lame!"

Then one of Lee's teammates turned to Sasuke and asked him, "What's your name and how old are you, kid?"

Sasuke then said curtly, "If you want to know someone's name, then you should give them your's first. Anything else is none of your business." Sakura then grabbed both Naruto and Sasuke and pulled them behind her telling them to hurry. As they were leaving they heard Lee yell, "Wait!" He then looked at Sakura, giving her the creeps as she hid behind Naruto.

Lee then jumped off the balcony he had been standing on and said to Sasuke, "I am Rock Lee. Now tell me your name and fight me!"

Sasuke smirked and said "Uchiha Sasuke." But before he could say anything else, Naruto interrupted him.

Naruto yelled, "Wait! If you want to fight Sasuke, then you're gonna' have to beat me first. Otherwise, this would be a waste of time." Sasuke had no problem with this since it would give him the opportunity to see Lee's techniques.

Lee then said, "I do not wish to fight you. I wish to fight Uchiha."

Naruto then charged at Lee and shouted, "I am Namikaze Naruto, son of the Hokage and your fight is with me first!" Lee dodged Naruto's punch with ease and went to kick Naruto, only to have his kick blocked by a shadow clone. The real Naruto then punched Lee in the gut. Lee then vanished, only to reappear under Naruto and kick him in the jaw, sending him flying straight up into the air. While in the air, Naruto made a series of hand signs and, right as lee was about to hit him, shouted, "Fūton: Daitoppa!"

Naruto released a powerful blast of wind that sent Lee plummeting right into the ground. Naruto then said with a grin, "Sorry, Lee, but the air is my domain. You're strong and fast, but my dad is the fastest shinobi in the world! Compared to him, you seem like you're standing still.". Lee had started to remove the bandages on his arm and was about to try to attack Naruto again when something odd happened.

Right when Lee was about to charge Naruto, a huge pink-and-red tortoise appeared in front of him and barked gruffly, "That's enough, Lee! You know that technique is forbidden!" Lee bowed his head in shame as the tortoise said, "Are you prepared to face your punishment? Lee nodded his head then the tortoise said, "Good. 'Cause… here comes Gaaaiii-senseeieii!"(**I refuse to describe Gai's entrance. It's the same as in the manga. If you've seen it, you'll know it's too creepy for words)**.

Gai then declared, "As punishment for your actions of almost using that technique, you will run 500 laps after the exams!" Lee saluted and shouted, "YES, GAI-SENSEI!" And then he randomly started to cry. At this, Gai (also randomly crying) hugged him and cried, "Lee!", who cried back, "Gai-sensei!" This odd and slightly creepy display of emotion continued for a few more minutes.

Then Naruto said, "I don't see what the big deal is. He had already lost and he didn't use the technique. And besides, even if he had used it, he _still_ would have lost."

Sasuke then said, "Naruto's right. Lee had no chance. He had already lost. The crater from his impact is proof enough, and that's Naruto's weakest Ninjutsu." He then continued, "Lee was lucky that was a wind technique. One of my fire jutsu would have just killed him."

When Gai heard this, he shouted, "Since you lost, Lee, you will run 1,000 laps!" He then turned to Naruto and Sasuke and asked, "What are your names? I would especially like to know the blonde kid's since he beat Lee."

Then there was a brief flash of yellow and Minato appeared next to Gai. "This is my son Naruto and his teammates Sasuke and Sakura. Though if they don't hurry, they'll all be late for the exams, as will your student, Gai". He turned to regard everyone in the room and said seriously, "That was a good fight. I had been passing by when I saw it, and was impressed by Lee's Taijutsu skills as well as Naruto's timing on that wind jutsu."

Sakura then said to her teammates, "Come on, Naruto, Sasuke. We don't want to miss the exam because you two were too busy standing around!" Then she turned to Minato and bowed, saying, "Excuse us Hokage-sama". Minato shook is head at her formality as Team 7 left.

Lee then left as well to rejoin his own team. Minato turned to guy and said, "It seems the Chuunin Exams will be very interesting this year." Gai smiled his brilliant grin and said, "Indeed they will be, Hokage-sama". The two then left.

When Naruto and the team got to the real room 301, they saw Kakashi outside the room. On seeing them, he walked over and said, "Good. All three of you are here, which means you can enter." The trio didn't even answer as they were too focused to even notice Kakashi standing there talking to them.. When they walked right past him and into the room, he slumped to the ground thinking to himself, "_THEY DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE ME_!"

When Team 7 entered the room, they saw shinobi from all over the world. Then, out of nowhere they heard a loud voice: "Sasuke-kuuuunnn! I haven't seen you in forever!" Naruto and Sakura turned around to see a girl with platinum blond hair jump onto Sasuke's back.

Sakura shook her head, holding in a laugh and said, "Ino, get off him and calm down before you hurt yourself." Ino looked at Sakura and decided to do as the pink-haired kunoichi suggested since, oddly, Sakura was smiling.

Ino then thought to herself, "_Sakura really is over Sasuke-kun. If not, she would've gone nuts." _Ino then said, "So Sakura, what's it like to have one genius on your team," then she glanced toward Naruto and said, "along with one idiot?"

Naruto was ready to tell Ino off for that, but Sakura cut him off, saying, "Naruto-kun isn't an idiot, Ino-pig. You'd know that if you focused on other things besides Sasuke. If you can't, then you'll never become a chuunin".

Ino, as usual, ignored Sakura's advice and said obnoxiously, "So it's Naruto-kun now, is it? Well, it seems you've found someone new." But before either Sakura or Naruto could comment on that, Ino's teammates, Akimichi Chouji and Naara Shikamaru walked over.

When Naruto noticed them, he smiled and said, "Hey, guys! How've ya' been? I haven't seen you since graduating from the academy." Before they could respond, however, Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba with his dog Akamaru walked over. When Naruto saw Hinata, he grinned and said, "Hey, Hinata! I haven't seen you since the last family reunion! How are you?"

Kiba and Sakura were surprised by this statement and Sakura turned to Naruto and asked, "How are you two related?"

Hinata answered in her timid voice, saying, "My mom is the Naruto's dad's younger sister. We're cousins". This made sense since Sakura knew Naruto couldn't be related to Hinata's father by blood. Otherwise, he would have had Byakugan.

As Kiba and Naruto started to get into one of their pointless arguments, a young man with silver hair and glasses came over and said to the nine gennin, "You really should keep quite. Everyone is staring. Oh, by the way, my name is Yakushi Kabuto." Naruto and Kiba stopped bickering and saw that Kabuto was right: everyone in the room was staring at the group of gennin.

This unnerved Sasuke and Sakura a bit until Naruto spoke up. He said loudly, "Listen up! I'm Namikaze Naruto and I'm going to win this exam!" Everyone in the room went from staring to glaring. Although the rest of the room was mad at Naruto, those that knew him were rather expecting this kind of reaction from him.

Kabuto smiled and said "You people really are interesting, especially the loud blonde kid." He then pulled out a deck of cards and said, "So, I see you guys are new to this. Care to learn a bit about the competition? With a little chakra from me these cards can display information on anyone." Kabuto then looked at Sasuke and asked "So, who would you like to find out about?"

Sasuke thought for a moment then said, "Namikaze Naruto and Sabaku no Gaara". Naruto was interested to see what the card would say about him so he leaned closer to them. He also wondered if the card would show that the Kyuubi was sealed inside him.

Kabuto smiled and said, "We'll start with Naruto. Since he's a Leaf ninja, I'll have more info on him." Kabuto pushed some of his chakra into a card and swiped it in front of Naruto. The card then showed a picture of Naruto, the number of missions he had done and the ranks of those missions. Kabuto then said, "Namikaze Naruto: Wind element style jutsu user, multiple D-rank missions, zero C-rank mission, and one B-rank mission. Very interesting. Few gennin get a B-rank mission…. Let's see…. You scored high in Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, but failed in Genjutsu; unique traits are increadibly high chakra, more than even some Jounin."

Kabuto paused in his description when he noticed something strange on Naruto's card. Kabuto then said, "Now this is very interesting indeed. It describes the source of Naruto's great amount of chakra."

Before Kabuto could say anything further, Naruto took the card from him and said "You should know the secret behind my chakra level is an S-class secret. So unless you want to be arrested, I suggest you don't talk about it." Kabuto was surprised how one minute Naruto was a hyperactive idiot, and the next second he was cold and serious.

Sasuke was surprised, so he then told Kabuto, "Forget about Gaara. Tell me my own stats, then his." Kabuto did as he was asked and read Sasuke's card, saying, "Uchiha Sasuke: Fire element style jutsu user, same amount of missions as Naruto. You both scored the same in Ninjutsu, Naruto scored a bit higher in Taijutsu, and you scored much better than Naruto in Genjutsu."

Sasuke smirked, glad that he was better than Naruto for the most part. But Kabuto wasn't done. He then said, "Naruto has higher chakra and more advance jutsu, though. Also, his stamina is higher than your's." This wiped the smirk off of Sasuke's face. He was about to say something when there was a huge blast of black smoke at the front of the room.

When the smoke cleared, a man dressed all in black with a headband worn covering the top of his head as well as the forehead, with horrible scars all over his face appeared, along with several other people behind him. The scarred man growled to the room, "Everyone shut up and take the seats I assign you!" Everyone was quick to do as the strange man said. He then informed them, "I am Morino Ibiki, the proctor for this exam. So listen up while I explain the rules!" Ibiki then told them how they would be taking a writing exam to test their knowledge and how if they got caught cheating 3 times they, along with their teammates, would fail the exam. Then he barked, "Now, begin the exam!"

As the exam progressed, many teams were failed due to a member getting caught cheating. Sakura, thanks to her book smarts, was having little trouble with the exam. Neither was Sasuke thanks to Sharingan. Naruto, on the other hand, was having an extremely hard time since he was never good at written tests. As he was freaking out mentally, he remembered when his mom had taught him to enhance his sight, hearing, or sense of smell using chakra.

Naruto then pushed chakra into his eyes and, although they remained blue, his pupils had become slits like they did when he used the Kyuubi's chakra. This was because, although he didn't know it, his own chakra and the Kyuubi's chakra was intertwined. Thusly, he constantly uses an increadibly small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra, though diluted by his own. It was just enough to enhance his long distance eye sight to were it was as good as a fox's.

Doing this allowed him to see the answers on the exam of the person in front of him. Naruto copied his answers onto his own paper. Then, right when he was done, Ibiki said, "It is now time for the 10th question! But, before that, anyone who wants to may leave and retake the exam next time. But, if you decide to stay and get the answer to the 10th question wrong, then you will forever be a gennin and you will never be allowed to retake the Chuunin Exam." Ibiki then fell silent to allow this junction to sink in. This silence unnerved many of the gennin there, who began to quit. When many teams had quit, he asked, "Anyone else want to quit?"

Naruto then slammed his hands on the table and yelled, "I will never give up! Even if I'm stuck as a gennin forever, I will still become Hokage!" Sasuke and Sakura smiled, having anticipated such a response from the Number One Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja.

Ibiki smiled at this and thought to himself, "The Hokage has got himself one interesting kid. He was able to get rid of the doubts in everyone. It would be pointless to stall any longer." Ibiki then smiled his rather scary mile and said, "Congratulations. Everyone in here passes." At the startled expressions and questions of everyone, Ibiki said, "This test was not about book smarts. It was about information gathering, for as chuunin, you will be sent on missions where you know nothing about your target. You must be able to gather information properly." He then said darkly, "Another skill a chuunin must posses is the ability to keep secrets if he is captured." He then removed his headband to reveal scars, burns, and old puncture wounds all over his head.

Everyone was stunned by this. And if that wasn't enough, there was a crash and a puff of thick smoke. From the smoke, a woman with purple hair and a chain mesh shirt with a tan overcoat appeared. She then turned to Ibiki and said with a devilish grin, "You're slipping, Ibiki. Look how many are left."

Ibiki just smiled and said "There were many promising candidates".

The newcomer sighed and shook her head. She then smiled and said, "No matter. You all follow me to the second exam!" Everyone then followed her to a large fenced in forest where she said, "Welcome to the second exam! I am Mitarashi Anko, proctor for the second part of the exam. So all of you listen up as I explain the rules!" Then her serious expression changed to a smile and she said in sweet voice, "But first, I need you all to sign these forms since there is a chance you may die during this exam, and I don't want the Leaf Village to be held responsible."

All the contestants appeared shocked, and as Naruto was about to say something, a kunai whizzed by and cut his cheek. Then Anko appeared in front of him and licked the wound, saying, "Just sign the form don't complain or question." Then there was a long tongue holding the kunai behind Anko.

The Grass ninja with the kunai held in his tongue said "Here's your kunai back, ma'am." Anko smiled and thanked the Grass shinobi while Naruto was even more creeped out then he had been before. He thought to himself "_That tongue can not be natural_."

After the forms had been signed and turned in, Anko explained the rules saying "Each team will get one of two scrolls. Your mission is to get the scroll you don't have while protecting the one you started with. When you have both, go to the tower in the center of this forest. You have five days to finish this exam. You can forfeit right now if you want. If you don't have both scrolls when you get to the tower, you fail. If you don't make it to the tower on the 5th day, you fail. And if all of your teammates aren't with you and alive, or if you open the scrolls before you get to the tower, you fail." She then shouted, "The exam begins NOW!"

With that all the teams got a scroll and took off into the Forest of Death. In the forest, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had stopped to come up with a plan. Naruto then said, "Even when I enhance my senses, I can't find any of the others. Just animals." Sasuke thought about that for a moment then said, "We need to figure out where we are in relation to the tower, since setting an ambush around the tower would work best." Sakura looked at Naruto and said, "If you channel wind chakra to your feet, you should be able to jump above the trees enough to see the tower." Naruto then said, "Alright, but we gotta' move right after that, since it'll give away our position." Sakura and Sasuke nodded their heads in agreement. So Naruto jumped up off of a high branch, and when he landed, he told his friends, "The tower is due west of here."

They headed west into the forest, toward the tower. As they were traveling, they came across three Rain ninja. They stopped and Naruto and Sasuke ran through hand signs and shouted, "Futon: Daitoppa!" and "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" The two jutsu combined to create a blast of fire so intense that no one could have created it by themselves. Right when it hit the Rain ninja, they turned into water. Naruto growled, "Damn! They were just water clones."

Then they were attacked from behind, making them jump into an open clearing. There, the three Rain ninja made their own hand-signs and said in unison, "Suiton: Bakusui Shōha!" A huge wave of water then came blasting out of the trees and filled the clearing in a dome shape.

Trapped in the water, Team7 had to hold their breath to keep from drowning. Naruto then made a hand-sign and created a huge sphere of wind giving, them time to think. He looked at his teammates seriously and said, "We need to make a plan fast, guys. I can't hold this thing forever."

Sasuke and Sakura thought of a plan while Naruto concentrated on maintaining the wind sphere. After a little under a minute, they had a plan. Sasuke then said, "Naruto, use your shadow clones to keep them busy while I focus on breaking this jutsu. And Sakura, cover me".

Naruto could only grunt in agreement since the wind sphere wasn't easy to maintain normally, let alone under water. As he let the sphere go, he gasped, "Everyone take a deep breath. It's the last one 'til the water is gone." He then made ten shadow clones, only for them to quickly be dispelled by the Rain ninjas' water clones. The real Rain ninja didn't have to worry about the water, thanks to their breathing masks.

They then attacked Sasuke and Sakura. Thanks to his Sharingan, Sasuke was able to see it coming and dodge, but Sakura wasn't so lucky. She had the wind knocked out of her by a punch from one of the Rain ninjas. Naruto saw the punch out of the corner of his eye and Sakura floating unconscious. The sight of this heinous act caused his anger to boil over in the form of red chakra.

The water around Naruto began to boil as the chakra began to surround him in the form of a fox-like cloak with a single tail behind it. He then swung his arms, creating so much force it destroyed the water clones as Naruto charged the real Rain ninjas, using the chakra tail to move himself. The Rain ninja couldn't even move, they were so paralyzed by fear. Naruto formed a Rasengan in his right hand, and thanks to the Kyuubi chakra it became even more powerful, creating a whirlpool in Naruto's wake. As Naruto hit the first Rain ninja with the Rasengan, the backlash of water from it hit the other two, defeating all three shinobi with a single move. The water jutsu ended as well since the casters had been rendered unconscious.

As Sasuke watched Naruto, he could only wonder "_What is he hiding that gives him so much raw power_…?" Sasuke then went to the Rain ninja and found they had the scroll Team7 needed. Naruto was checking on Sakura, trying to wake her up. When she did wake up, she coughed up a lot of water, but was otherwise, no worse for wear.

Sakura looked at Naruto and said, "I'm alright, Naruto-kun. Thanks for making sure I was alright." She kissed his cheek then got up and said, "Come on. We cant stay here, Naruto-kun".

Naruto looked at her in confusion and asked, "Why did you kiss my cheek?" Sakura looked at him and said "Is it wrong to kiss you as thanks for saving me and standing up for me?"

As they jumped into the trees, Naruto said with a smile and blushing face "You don't need to thank me, Sakura-chan." Sasuke then held up the scroll he took form the Rain ninja and tossed it back to Naruto who took it without a word.

They rested for the night to regain their strength and recover from the attack. The next day they decided to head for the tower. As they were traveling, a giant snake came from the trees and swallowed Naruto. Sakura and Sasuke stopped, unsure what to do to get Naruto back. As they were about to chase the snake, Naruto appeared with out any harm even though he was eaten.

Sasuke doubted that the person in front of him was the real Naruto, so he asked "Hey, Naruto, how about you show me that Rasengan again?" Naruto hesitated then said, "Sure, Sasuke. He then made s hand sign as if to focus his chakra then formed the Rasengan. Sasuke just smiled as he waved his hand through the orb of chakra then kicked Naruto in the chest, sending him sprawling. He then said, "Naruto never needed hand signs to focus on making a Rasengan, nor did he need them to be a weak Genjutsu." "Naruto" then transformed into the Grass ninja that had the strange long tongue.

He said with a chilling smile, "Very good, Sasuke-kun." He then leapt toward Sasuke, who barely managed to dodge him. Sasuke had become paralyzed by fear, for somehow this ninja scared him more than anyone he had ever met. At that moment, there was a earsplitting explosion and the snake from before crashed through the woods. Naruto appeared, furious, not just about being eaten but that Sasuke was being a coward.

Naruto then shouted, "What the hell is wrong with you? You're just going to stand there and die? That's just pathetic! But fine - stay their scared while I fight this creep!" Sasuke was shocked that someone had actually called him a coward.

he thought to himself, "Naruto is a fool! He has no idea what this guy is capable of, he will get killed if he isn't careful!" Naruto charged at the grass Nin but all his kicks punches and clones were dodged even though he was moving with Kyuubi enhanced speed. He tried using his wind techniques but even they were useless against him. When Naruto started to get faster and scratched the grass Nin's face. The grass Nin then realized Naruto could become a small hassle so he hit Naruto in the gut.

The grass Nin hit right where the seal was this messing with Naruto's chakra knocking him unconscious. Right as Naruto was about to fall Sasuke used a kunai to pin him to a tree. Sakura then said "Naruto may not be as strong or as smart as you Sasuke but he is no coward even if he can't win he will fight but you stand like a coward when you can win, you are stronger than me or Naruto yet your scared some Uchiha you are."

Saskue then said "I will prove you wrong Sakura". He then activated his Sharingan and running through a series of hand signs said "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu" Sasuke launched fireballs at the grass Nin but they were all dodged. He then fought with taijutsu only exchanging kick and punches. His Sharingan was able to predict the grass ninja's every move throwing kunai every so often.

When Sasuke was falling he used wire to stop his fall. He then jumped up and attached wires to shuriken and threw them. The grass ninja then said "so you are using your Sharingan to control the shuriken and trap me you are indeed an Uchiha with great control of your Sharingan despite your age truly you are a genius."

Saskue then tightened the wires pinning the grass ninja to a tree he then made a hand sign and said "Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique", which followed the wires and hit the grass Nin. Sakura then ran over to Sasuke to see if he was alright. But then the grass ninja began to laugh.

He said "You have talent even more than your brother Itachi I look forward to when we meet again". Before anyone could speak the grass ninja's neck shot out to an incredible length and he bit Sasuke's neck with a set of fangs that grew from his mouth. He then left as Sasuke screamed in pain for where he was bitten were now three black marks, like little dots with blades sticking off, just like the Sharingan had around the pupil.

Sakura took the unconscious Naruto and Sasuke to as safe a place as she could find and set up a tent waiting for them to wake up. As she saw to them three ninja she had never seen before appeared. She pulled out a kunai and held it in front of her defensively. She was then attacked by the kunoichi member of the three Sound Nin. She was quickly over whelmed by the Sound Nin.

The Otonin as they called themselves, then said "This was too easy all he had defending him was a stupid girl that cares more about her hair then her jutsu and being strong its pitiful." The girl then yanked on Sakura's hair, causing Sakura to scream in pain. Sakura then used the kunai she was holding to cut her hair and switch with a log. Every time she was attacked she would switch with a log. Then, right when they almost had her, Lee came out of nowhere and planted his foot in each of their faces using his Leaf Hurricane jutsu, saying boldly to the shocked Sakura, "It is my duty to protect you in repayment for losing to Naruto!"

As lee fought the three Otonin he displayed an impossible speed, dashing from one to the other, pummeling each one until the one called Dosu managed to rattle off a hand sign and wickedly hiss the words, "Slicing The Air Jutsu!", causing a high frequency sound wave to rip through Lee's body, crippling the Leaf Nin, and allowing the one called Zaku to pummel him until he was barely conscious. Unbeknownst to Lee and Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were watching everything from a bush and debating whether or not to help. Ino started to remember back to when she first met Sakura, which was around the same time she met Naruto. It was then she said, "We've got to help them! After all Konoha Nin don't abandon their own!" Shikamaru and Choji agreed and attacked the Sound Nin to save Lee and Sakura.

Sakura was shocked to see Ino and her team and how well they worked together. The Sound Nin were living up to their names however, since all their techniques focused on sound techniques like the device on Dosu's arm. As the battle continued it looked like the Konoha Shinobi were going to lose. But then they all felt a dark and malevolent chakra.

When they saw the source it was Sasuke who was surrounded by a dark purple chakra. His whole demeanor changed; he seemed cold and ruthless, like someone who would kill for fun. He had black marks that were covering half of his face and were spreading down his body in a flaming pattern. He attacked the Sound Nin easily defeating the first two he then came to the third one who had what seemed to be holes in his hands. Saskue then hit him and grabbed his arms and said "You seem really fond of these arms… wonder what would happen if I tore them off."

The Otonin began to scream as Sasuke ripped his arms right out of their sockets. As he was about to finish pulling the arms off Sakura screamed "That's enough Sasuke! You already won, they're beat let them go!" At this point there were tears in her eyes, she was scared of this Sasuke, sure he had always been cold, but never ruthless or a killer. Sasuke calmed down as the black marks receded and once they were fully receded he collapsed unconscious again from the chakra.

After moving Sasuke back under the tent, Sakura let Ino fix her hair for her. As they were talking Ino asked, "What happened to Naruto?" As if on cue Naruto began to wake up his chakra had finally stabilized again after what Orochimaru did to him. He then looked around and noticed he was in a tent and that all around him the ground looked like a battle had taken place.

He then got up and walked over to where he saw Ino and Sakura. Once they noticed him he asked "What happened here Sakura-Chan? And why did you cut your hair?" Then thinking quickly he added, "Your hair does look nice though." Sakura who was about to hit him thinking he was insulting her hair calmed down when he said it looked nice. She then told him about what had happened from when he was unconscious to when he woke up. To say Naruto was angry was an understatement. If not for his chakra having just rebalanced itself he would probably have turned into the Kyuubi itself.

Naruto then went over to Sasuke and checked and sure enough he still had his scroll. He took the scroll and looked at the seal on his neck. Naruto then reached into his pouch and pulled out a tag with the word repress written in kanji on it. Naruto then remembered how he had gotten the tag his dad had given it to him before the Chunnin exams started saying, "This tag will suppress any chakra that isn't your natural chakra. It is designed to work on even the strongest of seals, like yours. Naruto then pressed it on Sasuke's curse mark, although it was meant for him in case he had a hard time with the Kyuubi he figure Sasuke would benefit more from it though it was only temporary.

Sakura saw what Naruto did and asked "Will that seal harm Sasuke at all?" Naruto handed her the scroll he took form Sasuke as he told her how the seal worked avoiding what its original purpose was since it wasn't just him and Sakura there. She then thanked Ino and the others, especially Ino though since they were friends again now that they weren't feuding over Sasuke. Then Naruto picked up Sasuke and they all went their separate ways.

It was another day before Sasuke woke up, but once he did he tried to remove the seal Naruto placed on him. But Naruto stopped him saying "That seal is the only thing keeping you sane right now. Without it you'd either be trying to kill us or be running around like a lunatic attacking everyone you saw." Saskue did as Naruto told him and left the seal alone. Team 7 then made its way to the tower unchallenged since Naruto was using his heightened senses to avoid people.

Once at the tower Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura went in once in they opened the two scrolls. The scrolls acted as summons and Iruka-sensei, their teacher from the academy, appeared in front of them. He then said "I'm proud of you three, you finished with a day to spare. You did good." Naruto smiled at this. He and Iruka had always been close as Iruka was the first teacher to ever accept him as a person and not just the son of the Hokage or as a monster. Iruka then said "go through the doors behind me and wait you have a day to rest."

The next day all the teams that had passed lined up and waited to hear what the next test would be. A short while later the Hokage alone with their Jounin instructors showed up. Minato was dressed in his official Hokage robes, which made Naruto laugh till Sakura elbowed him. His laughing caused those that didn't know he was the son of the Hokage to stare at him like he was crazy. Minato then said "Congratulations to all those who passed unfortunately there is a limited amount of space in the finals, which is why we will be having a preliminary round where each of you will go one on one against the other competitors in the exam. Your opponent will be chosen at random and displayed on the board on the right side of this room. He then said "Any injuries will be treated by Tsunade in the infirmary. If you want to back down now due to an injury, say so now." Raising his hand and stepping forward sheepishly Yakushi Kabuto said that he couldn't compete due to an injury he sustained early on. Upon his departure from the tower the matches began. The first matches pitted Shikamaru against the Otonin kunoichi Kin; Shikamaru used his Shadow Possession to win a decisive victory at a shocking speed. Next Kankuro of the Sand Village took on Misumi Tsuguri, one of Kabuto's team mates. Kankuro won in a gruesome display of his puppet-mastery. Neji and Lee's team mate Tenten was crushed in battle by Temari of the Sand Village. Shino bested Zaku of the Sound with a gruesome display of his bug-taming abilities.

After the first matches Sasuke's name came up his opponent was Yoroi Akado a fellow Konoha Shinobi. Before Sasuke went to fight Kakashi said "If your curse activates I will stop the fight and you will be removed from the exam." Sasuke nodded his head in acceptance then went down to the arena floor. Once the match started Yoroi started to drain Sasuke's chakra, making Sasuke rely on taijutsu only. Sasuke kicked him into the air and then came up behind him, grabbing him and starting to spin. Both Lee and Naruto recognized this as what Lee had tried to do to Naruto. Even though he never saw Lee finish the move, his Sharingan had already predicted, memorized and learned to copy the jutsu. Sasuke then spun with Yoroi to the ground and dove out of it before smashing into the ground with Yoroi. Yoroi was defeated and Sasuke was declared the winner.

Then a few fights later it was Naruto's turn and his opponents were Inuzuka Kiba and is dog Akamaru. Most thought Kiba would win with no problem but it turned out to be the opposite. Kiba lowered himself into the attack stance of his clan but before he could move Naruto shouted "Fūton: Renkūdan' shooting three wind bullets at Kiba and Akamaru. Kiba was able to use "Fang Over Fang" to withstand them but Akamaru wasn't as lucky and ended up unconscious. This made Kiba so mad that he charged Naruto without thinking only to get hit in the gut with a ferocious kick, sending him sprawling across the floor on his head. Naruto was then declared the winner.

The next match was Hyuuga Hinata versus Hyuuga Neji, her older and stronger cousin. Neji completely overpowered Hinata was savagely defeated by Neji to the point where she was coughing up blood. Neji was about to deal a final blow but Minato flashed in front of him and hit him so hard he was barely standing. Minato then glared at Neji so coldly that Neji understood why the Iwa Nin feared Minato. Minato then said "That's enough, you win but you took this match too far so I'm warning you; if you ever hurt my niece like that again you will answer to me. And I'll show you just why I'm feared by all my enemies." He then took Hinata to Tsunade to be healed, leaving his predecessor Sarutobi, to watch over the remaining fights.

Naruto was just as angry as his dad since he was close to Hinata since she used to come to his house when she had problems with her father. Naruto then said "Dad went easy on Neji..." This shocked everyone who heard him wondering how that was easy. Naruto then said "Neji is a Hyuuga Branch member and Hinata's his cousin. Hinata's father is head of the entire clan since he runs the Main Branch, and the older twin brother of Neji's dad who died during the war against Kumogakure. Although he finds Hinata weak her dad would still punish Neji for hurting a member of the main branch to such a degree." Everyone but the Jounin instructors was shocked by the policies of the Hyuuga Clan.

The next match was Ino versus Sakura. When both were standing in front of each other Sakura said, "Don't hold back just because we're friends. If I win I want it to be because I'm strong, not because you held back." Ino was glad to be friends with Sakura again and didn't want to risk it by holding back so she agreed with Sakura. Neither were good at any jutsu beside taijutsu except Ino, who had her clan jutsu as well but it was a mid range technique and Sakura had to be standing still for it to work. They were equal in taijutsu so as they broke apart they tried throwing shuriken and kunai but still they were tied. Then Ino did something unexpected; she took a kunai and cut her hair and threw the cut hair in front of her.

Ino then ran her chakra through her hair creating a chakra rope to hold Sakura in place. Ino then made the hand sign and said for her Kekkai Genkai "Shintenshin no Jutsu" switching her mind to Sakura's body. Ino then tried to make Sakura tell the Jounin overseeing the match she gave up. Just as she was about to succeed Sakura heard Naruto shout "Don't give up Sakura-Chan! I know you can win!"

After hearing Naruto's voice Sakura used all her strength of will to throw Ino out of her mind. Once Ino returned to her body she was exhausted, as was Sakura. They had enough strength for one final attack. They charged each other, punching each other in the face at the same time. They both staggered back and were about to fall, but as Sakura was about to collapse she remembered Naruto telling her he believed she could win. This gave her just enough strength for her to stay standing long enough to be declared the winner as soon as the judge said so she collapsed a second later.

Naruto caught her before she hit the ground. Kakashi smiled underneath his mask he had been about to get Sakura but Naruto had actually been faster since he had been ready to jump as soon as the match started. There was one match left it was Gaara vs. Lee.

The match seemed one sided all of lee's attacks were being blocked by Gaara's sand. Lee jumped back after being blocked by Gaara landing on top of a statue he looked at Gai-sensei who nodded. Lee then took off the weights he had on under his leg warmers. Gaara's brother Kankuro laughed cruelly, "As if taking off some weights will help him beat Gaara!" Lee grinned and dropped the eights, which crashed straight threw the floor, reducing the tiles to dust and pebbles. His speed increased to where he was nothing but a green blur. Gaara looked around desperately every time Lee's kicks connected with his shield, because he couldn't see a thing even though his bizarre shield seemed to be able to follow Lee's movements. Naruto quietly gasped, "Whoah… if he used that speed against me I would have lost before I could even form a hand sign…" With his increased speed Lee was able to land a thunderous kick on Gaara's face, sending him sprawling and it looked like he might win. Lee then trapped Gaara in the Reverse Lotus, wrapping him in the bandages that normally cover his arms he then spun himself and Gaara upside down slamming into the ground. He hit Gaara so hard his Armor of Sand actually shattered and a drop of blood ran down his head. At seeing his own blood Gaara went crazy; his sand sped up and caught lee's arm and leg in a vice-like grip. Gaara then clenched his fist and said "SAND BURIEL!" crushing lee's arm and leg.

Before Gaara could proceed to kill Lee, Gai intervened, stopping Gaara's sand with his arm extended, like a clothes-line on a running person. Lee then got up, even though he was unconscious, virtually dead on his feet, saying "It's ok Gai-Sensei… I can continue…" The medics then came out and proclaimed Lee unable to fight the medic turned to Gai and said "His injuries are severe and threaten his ninja career if we don't get him out of here now." Gaara was declared the winner and Lee was taking to the infirmary.

With the preliminaries over Minato stepped forward and said, "Congratulations to all those who passed. Now come up and draw a number to see when you will fight and who your opponent will be. When Naruto went up he drew the number on making him the first to fight his opponent would be Neji. Sasuke was matched against Gaara and Sakura was to fight Temari. And Shikamaru would fight in the second round of the finals.

Minato then announced that the finals would be held in a month. He then said "Now use the month between to train and I'll see all of you at the exam. Except you Naruto, I'll see you at home where we'll discuss you laughing at the official Hokage robes."

Naruto then walked Sakura home before heading home himself. When he got home the first thing he wanted to do was sleep. After spending the last 5 days in the forest of death he was tired. Before he even made it through the door Kushina told him to come to the kitchen. There he saw his mom along with his dad sitting in front of him. Minato then said, "Congratulations on making the finals, normally this is where I tell you how I'm going to train you but since I'm the Hokage I can't since that would be playing favorites."

Naruto had been expecting this; he figured if his dad couldn't train him then his mom could, or maybe Kakashi-sensei could. But then his mom said "I've already taught you everything I can at least till you're older, that's why your father and I found you a new teacher." Naruto was curious as to who his new teacher would be he had a few guesses but wasn't prepared for who came in the room.

His parents had chosen Jiraiya as his teacher. He then said "Ero-Sennin is my new teacher?" his parents nodded. Naruto then shouted, "Great this means I won't get any training he'll be too busy being a pervert researching for his perverted books!" Kushina laughed at this since Naruto was right.

Minato then said "That's why Jiraiya-sensei will be taking you to the land of the toads, Mount Myōboku to train you where he can't be distracted." Naruto was excited now since he knew Jiraiya was strong and a good teacher since he taught Naruto's dad. Minato then said "You leave late tomorrow, now it's time for dinner."

The next day Naruto met up with Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi. Kakashi told them "Due to the curse seal I will be training Sasuke along with members of his clan, Naruto you I don't have to worry about since you will be trained by Jiraiya of the Sannin, as for you Sakura I found an excellent teacher for you. That's when a woman who was a little shorter than Kakashi and had brown hair down to the base of her neck and purple marks on both sides of face dressed in the standard Jounin outfit showed up next to Kakashi.

The woman then said "I am Hatake Rin, Kakashi here asked me to teach you ways to use your chakra control to your advantage." But Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke weren't listening; they were shocked by her last name. She laughed at this and said, "I take it Kakashi here didn't tell you that he is married did he?" They shook their heads while Kakashi sighed; he never thought that was something they needed to know. Rin shot him a look that said, "We'll talk at home" he knew he was in trouble for not telling them.

Later that day Naruto and Jiraiya were reversed summoned to Mount Myōboku to begin training. Jiraiya then said "What I'm going to teach you is how to better use your wind jutsu." Naruto whined about this but Jiraiya ignored him and continued saying, "If you do well and impress me the toads have agreed to give you a weapon they have been making for you, but if you continue to complain you will get nothing and just sit around here for a month with no training." Naruto shut his mouth when Jiraiya said this.

So the weeks passed and Naruto found out that using the jutsu he already knew better was not as easy as it sounded; it was incredibly hard. He first learned to mold more chakra into the jutsus to make them stronger. Then he learned to channel his wind chakra into his kunai making them sharper, he could also infuse it into shuriken. This proved incredibly hard, Jiraiya and Gama-Kichi would constantly criticize him telling him "This isn't hard; just focus on surrounding the points with wind chakra and make a sphere in the center so when they spins you can use chakra strings to direct them!"

After he had mastered his wind chakra Jiraiya took him to a small hut where he met two small old toads. Jiraiya introduced them as Fukasaku and Shima. They then gave Naruto two black fingerless gloves saying "These will help you with the weapon we're about to give you." On the gloves was the kanji for oil the symbol of Mount Myōboku.

Then Fukasaku went to a back room Naruto had not seen. When he came out he had a strange looking weapon. It had a long black wooden pole and two blades, one on each end. Fukasaku said "This is a naginata, it is a weapon generally used by samurai, not ninja so I'm not surprised if you've never heard of one." He then at Naruto's silence said "The wooden pole here is just a covering, underneath is a strong metal unique to Mount Myōboku. It's the same metal we forged the blades from and we forge weapons for us toads out of it as well in the process of making this weapon we constantly coated it in oil from here, making the metals chakra absorbing properties stronger than any other metal."

He then handed the naginata to Naruto saying "Its name is Harikēnburēdo which means Hurricane Blade, a name which in time I think you can make this weapon live up to."

Naruto then began to examine the blade and noticed the top blade was jagged and the bottom blade smooth. On the bottom blade were two symbols one on each side they were the symbol for Konoha and the symbol for Mount Myōboku. On the top jagged blade there was a barely visible picture of the Kyuubi with its nine tails extending down to the center of the pole. In the center there was just a simple pole piece with what looked like a whirlpool etched on it.

Once Naruto was done examining the blade Fukasaku said "now let's go outside so I can start teaching you how to use it properly, I have 2 weeks to teach you how to use this to were your not a danger to yourself. And can fight a battle with it and not hurt those around you."

Naruto's only complaint about it was "Why is almost a head taller than me?"

Jiraiya laughed and said "The toads started forging that naginata when you were but a baby since it takes years to forge one properly, they thought you would be taller by now like your dad was." Naruto grumbled under his breath about his height. Jiraiya said "Look at it this way, one day you'll grow taller than the Harikēnburēdo and by then you will be a master with it and a great ninja with or without it."

Fukasaku then taught Naruto the proper way to hold Harikēnburēdo. He then taught him how to slash parry and dodge using it. Naruto was slow at learning all this especially since he couldn't use shadow clones. Naruto learned how to channel his wind chakra into both blades making them sharper. Once he could do that he was taught how to fire blades of wind by slashing with one or both blade when they had wind chakra in them.

The toughest part of training with the toads he found out wasn't the training, no it was the food. He was used to normal human food not insects, and he didn't want to know what else was in Shima's cooking. Whenever he ate anything he would pretend it was ramen otherwise he couldn't swallow it.

After almost two weeks of training Naruto was proficient enough to slice through normal weapons like kunai, but he was still having trouble launching blades of wind from the blades. He could fire them less than five feet which Jiraiya said "That's pointless at that range just stab or slice your opponent. Now keep trying till you can double your range and maybe I'll teach you to make a twister." This fueled Naruto's efforts to where on his last day of training he launched a series of wind blades 11 feet.

Jiraiya then said "Good work now I would teach you to make a twister, but we don't have time unless you want to miss the exam and spend another month eating bug stew." Naruto visibly paled at the idea of more bug stew. He was desperate for real ramen and not imaginary ramen.

The toads then reverse summoned Naruto and Jiraiya back to Konoha. They had a day till the exam so Jiraiya told Naruto to rest up since he was fighting first and the Hokage's son couldn't be late. Jiraiya then left to do "research" while Naruto walked home. On his way home he saw a few familiar faces but didn't stop to talk.

He had planned on going straight home till he saw Ichiraku's and he just had to stop and eat. He ordered the largest bole of miso pork that he could. By the time he was finished he had eaten nearly a dozen large bowls and it was getting dark. As he was walking he saw a familiar head of pink hair.

Naruto then ran up to Sakura and hugged her from behind. She turned around to hit the pervert who had hugged her only to see it was Naruto. When she saw it was him she hugged him saying "When did you get back Naruto-kun?" Naruto didn't answer immediately since he was enjoying the hug and being back in Konoha.

Naruto then said "I got back an hour ago and was walking home till I stopped for ramen and then I saw you as I was leaving." Sakura then walked with Naruto neither of them paying attention to where they were going.

They ended up on a cliff overlooking the village and being straight in front of the Hokage monument. Naruto then asked, "So what have you been doing besides training this whole month I was gone?"

**thank you for reading now PLEASE leave a review telling me what you think. I don,t care if you praise or criticize me so long as it is honest. What i really want to know is do you like or dislike the weapon I made for Naruto. If you dislike something or just feel like giving helpful advice tell me. The next chapter may be awhile since college classes started now and they take up alot of my free time.**


	7. the day before

i am sorry it has taking me so long to update and that this chapter is so short but i have been busy with life and college. I will try to update sooner but i cant promise anything.

Disclaimer: I still do not own Naruto. Yes I know this shocking to everyone but sadly it's true.

**The day before**

Sakura thought about Naruto's question. She then said, "The training with Rin sensei was tough she made me use up all my chakra everyday so that my chakra reserves would become larger, then she had me running laps and doing sit ups and push up to increase my stamina."

As Sakura told Naruto about all the physical exercise she had to do he became grateful that he possessed a naturally high stamina. Because the exercises she was describing were frankly scary to him. Just thinking about doing so much exercise was enough to cause Naruto to shiver.

Sakura noticed Naruto shiver and asked, "Something wrong Naruto-kun?" Naruto shock his head and asked her to continue. So she then said, "After that Rin-sensei taught me a new technique." Naruto looked at her with a wondering look as to what the technique was. She said, "Sorry but you will just have to wait and see." Then smiling at him she asked, "So what was it like training with one of the Legendary Sannin Naruto-kun?"

Naruto grimaced and said, "It was torture! He took me to Mount Myōboku, the home of the toads, where every meal was made out of bugs." Sakura was disgusted by this and felt morbidly sorry for Naruto having to eat bugs for almost a month. Naruto continued, saying, "Ero-sennin though, was an amazing teacher! He taught me how to use my jutsu better and way better chakra control. Although he did yell a lot and call me hopeless…" Naruto then smiled and said, "Thinking about it now, eating bugs was worth it since if he took me any place else he would have never trained me, since he would be too busy being a pervert."

Sakura grimaced and nodded at this since she had met Jiraiya before and remembered hearing stories of his peeping on the women at the local hot springs. She then noticed something new on Naruto and asked, "When did you start wearing gloves Naruto-kun?"

Naruto had actually forgotten he was wearing gloves since he had become so accustomed to them all the time that he hardly noticed them anymore. He then said, "They were a gift from Ero-sennin and the two old toads he and I stayed with." He smirked inside, deciding to keep the fact that he had received a weapon from the toads a secret since Sakura hadn't told him what jutsu she had learned.

The two continued to talk for a while longer until they noticed the sun had set. Naruto glanced towards the darkening sky and said, "We should head home Sakura-chan." Then smiling he said, "And since it is dark out I'll walk you home." Sakura smiled shaking her head since she knew even if the sun was still out he would have insisted on walking her home.

As they walked home they talked about random things that were happening in the village. When they reached Sakura's house she said, "Would you like to come in for a bit and meet my parents?" Naruto was a little unsure but agreed since it would make Sakura happy.

When they walked inside Sakura's parents were sitting in the kitchen. Looking up and seeing Sakura her mom Yuka said, "Welcome home Sakura who is your friend?" Hearing the greeting her father Hokushin looked up his eyes widened in disbelief, "this is the son of the Hokage and my teammate, Namikaze Naruto". Her mother looked on in shock with tears in her eyes. Then Sakura's parents bowed deeply to Naruto and her dad then said, "thank you for looking after our daughter."

Naruto was stunned never before had anyone shown him such gratitude besides Sakura and his family. Stuttering with confused disbelief Naruto said "It was never a problem Kakashi-sensei taught us to never to abandon a comrade." Sakura's parents smiled warmly at Naruto.

Hokushin then patted Naruto on the back saying "You really are a good kid". Naruto stayed a little while longer talking to Sakura and her parents who invited him to stay for dinner but he declined saying, "I haven't been home in almost a month so my mom would kill me if I didn't eat dinner at home." Naruto then left to head home to the Namikaze estate.

Once Naruto had left Sakura's mom got a gleam in her eye and said, "Sakura how come you never told me that the Hokage's son is your teammate or that you two were so close?"

Sakura's face turned red and she started to stutter, "What do you mean? We're not that close were just good friends and teammates." Sakura's mom shock her head while laughing and then turned and made her way to the kitchen. But when she turned around Sakura knew she hadn't heard the end of her mom's opinion of her relationship with Naruto.

Meanwhile at the Namikaze estate Jiraiya and Minato were discussing Naruto's training and other matters. "Are you sure about that Jiraiya-sensei because if you are then that means that Naruto has an even harder life ahead of him than I expected." Minato was not pleased with what he was hearing.

Jiraiya just nodded with a tired expression on his face and a look in his eyes that truly showed his age. He then said "Yes, while spying on Orochimaru I came across information on an organization of S-class criminals from various nations and Orochimaru is one of them they call themselves Akatsuki and are after the nine Biiju which means that eventually they will come after Naruto." And although he tried to hide it, it was obvious that Jiraiya was worried about Naruto and just what would or will happen to him if Akatsuki comes after him.

Minato who had never seen such a look on his former sensei's face before and knew that it could only mean trouble said, "In that case I as both Naruto's father and Hokage give you permission to at some point after the Chunnin exams make Naruto your apprentice and train him to become a sage". Then with a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face Minato said, "you've got two years to train him and when he comes back he better be at the level of a kage since I'll be the one to see how much he learned."

Jiraiya laughed saying "I'll take that challenge it shouldn't be too hard after all I did train you and I've picked up a few new things since then so don't be surprised if Naruto beats you Minato." The two then went on to talk about what Naruto had learned in the month him and Jiraiya spent with the toads.

"You really gave him a weapon?" asked a stunned Minato.

Jiraiya responded, "It more so a training tool to teach him how use his natural element outside of complicated jutsu and will also help him master a second element, it was not designed to just be a weapon it was designed to help Naruto overcome one of his biggest weaknesses chakra control."

To say Minato was surprised would be an understatement he was downright astonished. The thought that someone could use a weapon to teach an element and chakra control all without the wielder realizing it was something he had never heard of. He then said "Hmm, it seems you truly have learned a thing or two since you taught me." Jiraiya then went on to boast about his greatness until the heard the front door open and close, which could only mean Naruto was home.

As soon as Naruto entered the house he shouted, "I'M HOME!" This was met with a slap to the back of his head from Kushina and a scolding about yelling in the house. Naruto then went to his room to unload all his gear from traveling. When he got to his room he was tackled by red headed blur which he soon identified as a bawling Aiko saying, "Welcome home Onee-chan! It was so boring around here without you." Naruto smiled and hugged his little sister saying "I missed you to Aiko."

Once he had unloaded everything Naruto went downstairs followed closely by Aiko who hadn't left him alone since she talked him as if she was afraid that if she did we would leave again. At dinner Naruto told his family about his training and time with the toads. Minato pretended as if it was his first time hearing all this and Jiraiya who had decided to stick around for a free meal just laughed at how dramatic Naruto was about eating the food at Mt. Myōboku. He then said "Be glad it was only a month; when I was your age I spent a whole year their eating nothing but bugs." Jiraiya then laughed at the hidden meaning of this since eventually Naruto would be spending a year if not longer with the toads as he learned to become a sage.

Elsewhere not far outside of Konoha Sasuke stood panting from exhaustion in an area full of rocks and sand that he'd been using to learn new techniques and training his speed and Taijutsu. He may have been exhausted on the outside but inside he was determined and the cold murderous look in his eyes showed this as he remembered seeing Naruto stand up to Orochimaru without a trace of fear while he a proud Uchiha stood frozen in place from simple killing intent drove him mad. Sasuke swore to himself, "I will become stronger than Naruto, stronger than any other Uchiha, even stronger than Itachi, and anyone who gets in the way of me becoming stronger will pay." This point was finalized by Sasuke ramming a Chidori into the nearest boulder, piercing the stone like butter and splitting it clean in half as his chakra ripped through it.

**thanks for reading now please review so i know what people think of this chapter.**


	8. prelude to invasion

Sorry it's taking me so long to update but I had computer problems

Disclaimer I do not own Naruto never have and never will (unless someone's feeling generous). It has been pointed out to me that I have used multiple names for naruto's sister so I decided to put he name here it is Ayame namikaze so disregard every other name I used. I chose Ayame because I like the way it sounds and its been stuck in my head ever since I watched an episode of inuyasha that had the wolf demon Ayame. (This is important since im a huge inuyasha fan and thts where I got the name Ayame from originally) I later found out it's the name of he ramen stand owner's daughter

**Prelude to invasion**

It was the day of the finals and Naruto was still asleep. Kushina decided Naruto needed a special wake up call so she said, "Ayame, go wake up your brother or he is going to miss his match." Ayame grinned evilly she ran into Naruto's room and jumped on his bed saying, "Naruto get up or you'll miss your match and be a Gennin forever!"

At this Naruto sat up immediately, throwing Ayame off the bed. He then rushed and got dressed in his orange jumpsuit. Only then did he notice Ayame who he looked at quizzically asking, "Why are you on the floor of my room Ayame?"

Ayame glared at Naruto and said, "Mom told me to wake you up so you don't miss your match in the Chunnin finals today, but when you woke up you tossed me off the bed." Naruto simply grinned sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head and apologizing.

When the two got to the kitchen an energy bar was tossed at Naruto while a plate of food was put out for Ayame. Naruto then asked, "Why do I only get an energy bar but she gets a full breakfast?"

Kushina smiled and replied, "You are about to have a tough match so you can't eat a full breakfast or you'd just vomit it all out on the arena floor and no one wants to see that." After Ayame had eaten and Naruto made sure he had everything he needed for the Chunnin finals they left the Namikaze estate and headed for the arena where the finals would be held. Once there, Kushina and Ayame went to go sit with Minato in the Kage's box and Naruto made his way to where all the other finalists were.

Just a little while later he and Neji were called to the arena floor to start their match. The two stood there waiting for the jounin to declare the start of the match. But first they had to listen to Minato's opening speech. Then the fight started, Naruto jumped back out of range for Neji's gentle fist attacks. He then ran through a quick series of hand signs as he took a deep and said, "Fūton: Renkūdan" launching three spiraling bullets of wind at Neji.

Neji didn't make any move to dodge the bullets instead he just put his arms out as he quickly spun in a circle creating a large sphere of chakra saying, "Hakkeshō Kaiten" (Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin). This caused the wind bullets to explode harmlessly against the charkra sphere. Naruto did his best not to show how much this surprised him.

Neji then said, "You should give up now, you have no way to win this match. You are destined to lose." He then quickly lunged at Naruto in an attempt to draw Naruto into a taijutsu match. Naruto did his best to dodge Neji since he was well aware of what would happen if Neji landed a hit after having watched Neji beat Hinata. Still he wasn't able to dodge completely and ended up with a few of the tanketsu (chakra points) on his left arm being closed.

Naruto then made five quick hand signs and said, "Fūton: Daitoppa" which released a great blast of wind, blowing Neji back. Naruto then considered using his naginata, but realized that against Neji it'd due more harm than good since it meant he'd have to get up close for it to be truly effective, and that would put him in range of Neji's gentle fist techniques. So instead he made a single hand sign and said, "Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!", making five Shadow-Clones who proceeded to jump into the air and try to land a punch or kick on Neji only to be repelled by his rotation.

Neji then dropped into a stance Naruto wasn't familiar with and hit each clone multiple times in different places, which caused them to be easily dispersed. Then in a mocking and derisive tone said, "Now do you see that nothing you do can beat me? For I am a genius and I am fated to win, while you simply got here because you father taught you some high rank jutsu." This made Naruto very upset since he had worked hard to learn his techniques and had not gotten to finals because of who his dad is.

Naruto decided Neji needed a lesson in humility and he was going to teach it to him the hard and painful way. So he ran through he signs for Fūton: Daitoppa and launched it at the ground in front of Neji creating a large dust cloud. He then made four shadow clones, which surrounded Neji in the smoke but stayed out of range of his rotation technique. Naruto then bit his thumb and ran through a flurry of hand signs and slammed his palm on the ground and said, "Kuchiyose no jutsu" which caused a medium sized toad to appear. The toad was the same color as gamakichi but slightly taller than Naruto and had armored wrist guards on.

The toad lunged at Neji as the dust cleared keeping him from attacking or focusing on the clones enough to notice they had each surrounded his legs in chakra chains two for each leg. The chains were still loose so Neji could dodge the toad's attacks. Meanwhile the real Naruto was concentrating on the spiraling sphere in the palm of his right hand. Once it was completely finished he jumped up in the air using the sun behind him so Neji couldn't clearly see him coming.

Neji tried to spin for rotation only to find himself unable to move with four clones having wrapped chakra chains around his legs. The toad dispersed itself right as Neji focused on his feat and managed to spin throwing the four clones away and creating the chakra sphere of his rotation right before Naruto would have hit him. As the Rasengan and rotation clashed Neji had a shocked expression on his face as Naruto's rasengan plowed through his rotation instead of being thrown back. Right before it hit him Neji heard Naruto shout in a triumphant voice, "Rasengan!"

As Neji hit the ground slowly fading out of consciousness he heard Naruto say, "Fate isn't predetermined; it's something you make for yourself, as for my jutsu, you're right I did get then from my parents but I perfected them through training and hard work that's how come I made it to the finals and beat you. Not because it was fate or because my dad is the Hokage, but because I worked hard and didn't rely on talent alone." Naruto then left he arena after being declared the winner.

Up in the kage's box Minato was smiling proudly at Naruto beating Neji. He then said, "Would the contestants for the second match please enter the arena." Then an ANBU came and whispered something to him. He then said, "Since the contestant Uchiha Saskue isn't here yet, he and Shikamaru Nara will switch places."

In the contestants box shikamaru was muttering, "Troublesome".

Naruto walked into the box right as shikamaru was leaving for the arena to face Garra. When he passed Shikamaru he said with a very serious expression, "Be careful, there's something wrong with that Gaara. No normal Gennin has that much killing intent, and if he gets a hold of you than forfeit, because dying would be way more troublesome than forfeiting."

Shikamaru nodded his head than continued on to the arena floor. Once there the proctor announced the start of the match and shikamaru jumped back and made a single hand sign saying, "kagemene no jutsu" with that shikamaru's shadow stretched out to grab garra's. Shikamaru smirked a bit at how easy it was to capture Garra. Until shikamaru had to drop the jutsu in order to avoid the sand coming at him.

Realizing that his kagemene no jutsu was useless against Garra since he could control his sand without moving. Shikamaru threw a light bomb at Garra and hid behind a tree crouching with his fingertips held together, hands hanging down between his knees with his eyes closed in concentration. He then raised his hands and came out form behind the tree and said, "I surrender nothing I do will hurt him so I surrender."

The proctor then said, "The winner is Sabaku no Garra".

Up in the kage's box the Kazekage turned to face the Sandime Hiruzen Sarutobi and asked, "What did you think of the match sarutobi-dono?"

The third thought about it for a minute then said, "He made a wise decision. Had he continued the fight the chances of him dying or getting hurt would have been too great, part of being a shinobi is knowing when to retreat and when to stay and fight, this was definitely a time to retreat." The Kazekage nodded his head in understanding then turned his attention to the next match Kankuro vs. Shino. In the end after a long match, Shino won by using his bugs to beat Kankuro's puppet.

The next match was Sakura vs. Temari. As Sakura began to leave for the arena Naruto stopped her and said, "Good luck Sakura-chan I know you will do great."

Sakura blushed a little at his confidence in her and said, "Thanks Naruto I'll give it my best shot after all I cant have you upstaging me." They both laughed at that knowing she was simply joking. Sakura then went down to the arena for her match.

When the match started Sakura threw a couple of kunai and shuriken at temari who blocked them all with her fan. Temari countered with a blast of wind at Sakura knocking her back and slightly cutting her as the blast had blades of wind inside it. Sakura charged at Temari trying to separate her from her fan. Unfortunately Temari was better at taijutsu then Sakura and knocked her back again. As she was sent backwards she threw two kunai at temari. Temari went to knock then away only for one to explode in a flash of light blinding her; she unfolded the fan fully and put in front of her as a shield. Sakura hurriedly made a series of hand signs and said, "Dokugiri!" spewing a poison mist out of her mouth.

Temari quickly used her fan to blow the mist away before it could have any affect on her. Sakura then ran forward and knocked the fan out of Temari's hands. They then engaged in taijutsu where temari knocked Sakura unconscious and winning the match.

Right when the match ended Saskue and Kakashi appeared in a storm of leaves in the center of the arena. Just when Kakashi started to say something about being late Minato interrupted him saying, "Save it Kakashi, it's not like you being late is anything new and now it seems your student is following your example. The next match will be Saskue vs. Garra."

**so tell me what you think good or bad. I'll try to have the next chapter out soon but sadly i have papers due and exams coming up so it may be a little while.**


	9. Attack of the Sound

Sorry its been so long since I updated I just hadn't felt like writing for awhile but now im back with plenty of ideas for this story and maybe a few others. I apologize for the grammer and spelling mistakes but my friend who edits my stories and fixes my mistakes is having computer problems and i wanted to have this chapter up before the end of august so i could not wait any longer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto; if you don't know that then you are an idiot and not a true Naruto fan.

**Attack of the Sound**

Sasuke stared at his opponent in eager anticipation Kakashi and warned him about Garra which could only mean he was a strong opponent and a chance for Saskue to prove just how great he was.

Garra was having similar thoughts to Saskue in that he was eager for the fight to start. But that eagerness was for an entirely different reason he wanted to kill Saskue not just beat him, all to prove that his existence had meaning and because Saskue was supposed to be strong.

Then the proctor said, "start" and Sasuke practically flew at Garra who just stood there without so much as blinking an eye. Sasuke threw a punch a Garra only for the sand to block it without any trouble. Jumping back Sasuke silently cursed to himself Sasuke began to think of ways around Garra's sand, "That damn sand blocks any physical attack but can it block a jutsu?" Sasuke then made a quick series of hand signs and said, "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu" then a large fireball launched from Sasuke heading right for Garra.

Garra didn't even attempt to move out of the way instead he just raised his hand and a large wall of sand rose up in front of him and blocked the fireball without any effort. The crowd in the arena gasped in shock especially the surving members of the Uchiha clan like Sasuke's mother Mikoto.

Sasuke then stated running around Garra at speeds that would rival Lee. He kicked and punched at Garra but was unable to break Garra's sang armor. So he jumped back onto the stadium wall while making a series of hand signs. He then charged at Garra shouting chidori. The chidori tore up the ground up in its path.

Garra had surounded himself in a dome of sand. But it wasn't enough to fully stop the chidori. It passed closely to garra's face not enough to cause serious harm but enough to draw blood. Upon seeing his own blood Garra let out what could be described as a psychotic howl. A large demonic looking hand shot out at Sasuke grabbing him and slamming him through the stadium walls into the forest.

Up in the stands kabuto made a single handsign for a jutsu that put the civilians and genins to sleep.

Up in the contestants box shikamaru released the genjutsu from himself before he could fall asleep. Then turning he saw that Naruto was asleep so he released him from the gen jutsu. Naruto then asked, "what is going on Shikamaru why is everyone asleep?" before Shikamaru could answer they heard the unmistakeble sound of clashing metal. When they turned to the source of the sound they saw Kakashi fighting a sand ninja but they also saw a sound ninja sneaking up behind Kakashi. Without thinking Naruto threw a kunai at the sound nin killing him when it went into his head.

Kakashi had just beat the sand nin when he turned around and saw the kunai kill the sound nin he then traced the kunai's path and saw Naruto was the one who threw it. He motioned for Naruto and Shikamaru to come to him. Once they go to him he said, "Naruto go to the infirmary once there take any available genin with you and help evacuate the village civilians to the shelters and remember any genin you take with you must follow your orders so you are responsible for them." Naruto took off to the infirmary as Kakashi turned to shikamaru and said, "you Shikamaru will stay here and help protect the sleeping civilians." Shikamaru didn't say anything instead he just nodded his head.

Naruto was relieved when he found that the people infirmary had not been hit by the sleeping genjutsu as he saw Sakura was awake. He then said, "Sakura chan Kakashi sensei says we are to help the civilians get to the shelters."

Sakura was confused and asked, "what's going on why are we evacuating the civilians whos attacking the village?"

Naruto shock his head and said, "just come with me I'll explain on the way". Not knowing what else to do sakura nodded and followed Naruto out into the streets of screaming civilians. As they ran towards the shelters they did their best to help any civilians they found being attacked, Naruto would then leave at least one shadow clone with the group to help them get to shelter while he and Sakura raced on ahead.

Once they got to the shelters they saw iruka and anko acting as guards and battling a mixed group of about ten sound and sand shinobi. Naruto looked at sakura and without speaking motioned her to help Anko while he helped Iruka. The two split up and Naruto made a cross shaped handsign and said, "kage bunshin no jutsu" then with a puff of smoke five shadow clones appeared and stabbed the surprised ninja in the back.

Anko and sakura who had also taken care of their attackers walked over to Naruto and iruka. Iruka then asked, "thanks for the help but what are you two doing here?" But before either Naruto or Sakura could answer two groups of civilians showed up each being lead by a naruto clone.

Naruto then said, "we were ordered by Kakashi sensei to guard the civilians and help them evacuate.

Iruka nodded then turned to anko and said, "I think that was the last of the civilians go ahead and send the counter attack signal." Anko nodded and went inside the shelter, when she came back out she was holding a hawk which quickly took flight letting out a pirecing cry as it flew over the village.

Sakura and Naruto looked at iruka and asked, "what do we do now?"

Iruka smilled at them and said, "we keep our guard up and watch as the jounin and clan heads push the enemy out of the village. Naruto and sakura nodded thinking that the worst was over but it seemed like fate had other plans for at that moment four sound ninja appeared almost out of no where. One was a large man with orange hair, another had four arms and black hair, the third had dark pink hair and carried a flute, and the last one had grey hair but nothing else about him stood out.

Naruto looked at them and smirked and said, "theirs four of them and four of us so that's one for each of us."

Iruka frowned and said, "don't underestimate them they seem different from the other sound ninja."

The sound ninja with the dark pink hair laughed and said, "we are the sound four personal guard of lord orochimaru, now just let us kill the loud mouth blond and we will leave the rest of you alive."

Iruka gleared and asked, "why does you master want Naruto dead?"

This time it was the one with four arms that answerd saying, "he wants the blond dead because he is the son of the yondaime and holds within him the most powerful demon the kyubi"

This caused iruka and anko to move defensively in front of Naruto. Sakura just stared at Naruto in her shock and a little fear form the last piece of information about the kyubi. Naruto looked at her and said, "please don't be afraid of me Sakura-chan im still me regardless of the kyubi, me and it are not the same." Still in shock sakura could only nod in acceptance before turning to face their attackers.

Iruka looked at Naruto and sakura and said, "Sakura you take four arms, I'll take the big one, Naruto the loud pink one is yours, and Anko the grey hair guy is yours." The four of them then launched themselves at their respective opponents.

**I'll try not to take to long with the next update(no promises college keeps me busy) hopefully it is longer than this chapter. Remember to review or else I'll take a year to update.**


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